BS  1235.8  .T78  1912 
Trumbull,  Charles  Gallandet 

1872-1941. 
Messages  for  the  morning 


wat-rh 


Messages  for  the  Morning  Watch 


APR  ^.^  19 


Messages  for  the 
Morning  Watch 

Devotional  Studies  in  Genesis 


^^ 


M 


By        ^ 
CHARLES  GALLAUDET  TRUMBULL 

Editor  of  The  Sunday  School  Times 


New  York  Chicago         Toronto 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 

London        and        Edinburgh 


Copyright,  191 2,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New    York:     158    Fifth    Avenue 

Chicago:  125  North  Wabash  Ave.  i 

Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W.  \ 

London:    21    Paternoster    Square  j 

Edinburgh:      100    Princes    Street  I 


The  writer  gratefully  acknowledges  his 
indebtedness  to  Miss  Susan  M.  Mapes  of 
The  Sunday  School  Times  editorial  staff,  for 
her  invaluable  assistance  in  preparing  this 
book  for  the  press. 


Foreword 

No  one  who  has  not  tested  it  for  himself  can 
know  the  enrichment  of  spending  time  in 
the  early  morning,  before  entering  upon  the 
day's  work  or  even  breaking  one's  fast,  alone 
with  God  in  prayer  and  in  the  devotional  reading 
of  His  Word.  This  habit  of  keeping  the  Morn- 
ing Watch,  as  it  is  called,  is  undoubtedly  being 
used  of  God  for  the  complete  making  over  of 
many  lives  that  have  already  been  committed 
into  the  keeping  of  His  Son. 

In  following  this  practice,  it  is  well  to  precede 
the  reading  of  the  Bible,  each  morning,  with  the 
prayer  that  the  Holy  Spirit  will  plainly  reveal 
to  the  reader  the  particular  truth  or  message 
that  He  has  for  him  in  the  Bible  passage  of  that 
morning. 

The  writer  had  found  in  his  own  observance 
of  the  Morning  Watch  that  the  messages  sug- 
gested for  his  personal  needs  were  so  rich  and 
often  unexpected  that  he  noted  them  down  for 
his  own  keeping  and  reference.  It  was  in  this 
way  that  most  of  the  messages  in  this  series  came 
into  being.  They  were  not  written  primarily  for 
7 


8  FOREWORD 

publication,  but  for  personal  use ;  and  they  are 
often  of  very  personal  application. 

The  writer's  practice  has  been  simply  to  read 
until  a  needed  message  was  received,  without 
uniformity  or  system  in  the  amount  of  Scripture 
material  read  each  day.  The  purpose  has  been 
to  refrain  from  any  hard  and  fast  method  of  di- 
vision of  material,  in*  order  that  there  might  be 
entire  freedom  to  receive  the  needed  truth. 

If  any  of  these  very  personal  jottings  are  sug- 
gestive to  others  in  the  daily  fight,  the  writer  will 
be  grateful  for  the  privilege  of  sharing  his  rations 
and  ammunition  in  this  way. 

C.  G.  T. 

Philadelphia, 


yiND  God  said,  Let  there  be  light:  and  there 
'"'    was  light.     Genesis  i.  i  to  3. 

There  is  no  birthday  in  any  one's  experience 
equal  to  that  day  when  God  says  to  him  and  for 
him,  "  Let  there  be  hght."  For,  while  the  ele- 
ments had  to  obey  God  in  His  blessed  fiat  of 
light  for  them,  we  have  the  privilege  of  choice, — 
obedience  or  disobedience,  when  He  offers  His 
hght  to  us.  If  we  do  not  use  and  hve  by  the 
life-giving  light  that  God  offers  us,  then  the  light 
that  is  in  us  is  darkness ;  and  how  great  is  the 
darkness  !  (Matt.  vi.  23). 

The  unspeakable  blessing  of  light  is  one  of  the 
first  things  recorded  in  this  first  word  of  the  Old 
Dispensation,  and  it  is  one  of  the  first  words  of 
the  New  Covenant :  "  In  him  was  hfe ;  and  the 
life  was  the  light  of  men  "  (see  John  i.  4,  5,  7-9). 
For  me,  if  I  will  let  God  empower  me  to  use  the 
light  that  He  has  made  for  me,  is  the  pledge  that 
my  pathway  shall  be  "  as  the  dawning  light,  that 
shineth  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day  " 
(Prov.  iv.  18). 

yfND  God  divided  the  light  from  the  darkness, 
•^•^    Genesis  i.  4. 

That  division  of  the  light  from  the  darkness 
9 


10  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

was  forever :  so  long  as  darkness  may  exist. 
The  darkness  has  nothing  in  common  with  the 
light,  the  hght  has  nothing  in  common  with  the 
darkness.  What  God  hath  put  asunder,  let  no 
man  join  together.  The  sharp  line  of  cleavage 
between  the  two,  established  by  God,  was  the 
first  act  of  God's  blessing  after  He  had  created 
the  unspeakably  rich,  life-giving  blessing  of 
light ;  and  it  will  be  the  last  act  of  God's  as  He 
brings  to  an  end  this  age  in  which  we  live,  the 
age  when  the  powers  of  darkness  are  permitted 
to  live  and  to  work, — and  for  the  last  time 
divides  the  light  from  the  darkness,  as  the  dark- 
ness goes  out,  and  the  eternal  reign  of  light  is 
ushered  in.  "  For  there  shall  be  no  night  there  " 
(Rev.  xxi.  25). 

The  Devil  does  not  like  this  sharp  division  be- 
tween hght  and  darkness.  He  counts  it  unneces- 
sarily sharp,  and  wants  us  to  count  it  so.  Often 
he  succeeds  in  this  ;  it  is  his  mission  to  persuade 
us  to  join  together  what  God  has  put  asunder. 
Let  us  hold,  as  our  hope  of  eternal  hfe  and 
eternal  hght,  to  the  God-made  division  of  light 
and  darkness,  in  every  choice,  thought  and 
action  of  to-day. 

yiND  God  said,  Let  the  earth  'put  forth  grass^ 
-^  herbs  yielding  seed,  and  the  fruit-trees  bear- 
ing   fruit    after   their    kind,    wherein    is    the  seed 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     II 
thereof^  upon  the  earth  :  and  it  was  so.     Genesis  i.  5 

to  II. 

The  first  record  of  the  first  created  life,  even 
life  in  its  lowest  form — vegetable — declares  that 
God's  will  for  this  hfe  was  that  it  should  bear 
seed  and  fruit  for  the  purpose  of  producing  more 
life,  and  that  the  seed  and  fruit  of  any  life  is  after 
its  own  kind :  whatever  kind  it  is,  such  shall  be 
the  kind  that  it  reproduces  and  passes  on.  And 
the  fruit  that  a  life  bears  contains  the  seed  of 
more  hfe  of  the  same  sort.  There  has  been  no 
change  in  God's  expressed  will  for  all  life  that 
He  has  ever  created,  up  to  life  in  its  highest  spir- 
itual form, — yes,  even  to  the  Life  that  was  not 
created  but  that  was  in  the  beginning  with  God, 
and  through  whom  all  things  were  made :  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Word,  the  Son  of  God.  We  are  here 
to  bear  fruit,  in  which  shall  be  the  seed  of  new 
life.  Those  who  are  doing  God's  will  by  living 
in  Him  in  whom  are  the  Hght  and  life  of  men, 
are  bearing  fruit  by  calling  into  spiritual  life 
those  about  them.  That  is  what  we  are  here 
for ;  to  spend  our  lives  in  soul-winning  and  soul- 
building.  If  we  fail  to  do  that,  we  are  still  under 
this  first  law  of  life,  and  we  are  bearing  fruit  after 
our  kind,  whether  we  know  it  or  want  to,  or  not : 
if  our  kind  is  unworthy  that  is  what  we  are  caus- 
ing others  to  become.  Always  it  is  "  after  their 
kind." 


12  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

Cr'O  give,  light  upon  the  earth.     Genesis  i.    12 
-^      to  15. 

All  this  tremendous  creative  power  of  Je- 
hovah's was  directed  toward  one  single  object  at 
this  time :  the  making  of  the  earth  a  beautiful, 
perfectly  equipped  home  for  His  children.  The 
lights  were  in  the  firmament  of  heaven,  some 
millions  of  miles  from  the  earth :  but  they  were 
there  to  give  light  upo7i  the  earth.  If  our  heav- 
enly Father  wrought  such  stupendous  acts  of 
creation  for  our  physical  dwelling-place,  is  not 
His  omnipotent,  creative  power  equally  at  our 
disposal  for  all  our  needs  to-day,  and  above  all, 
for  our  spiritual  needs,  which  are  our  most 
baffling  and  difficult,  and  in  which  we  are  most 
hopeless  without  Him?  Later,  His  Son  came 
"  to  give  light  upon  the  earth."  We  need  not 
be  in  darkness  one  instant  of  this  day. 

CT^O  divide  the  light  from  the  darkness.     Genesis 

-^     i.  16  to  19. 

In  the  original  creation  of  light,  recorded  in 
verses  3  and  4,  God  the  creator  divided  light 
from  darkness.  Now,  when  God  commits 
specific  hght-giving  duties  to  certain  of  His 
creations.  He  makes  it  a  definite  part  of  their 
duty  to  divide  the  light  from  the  darkness.  So 
it  is  in  the  spiritual  world.  God  has  once  for  all 
divided  light  from  darkness  :  they  can  have  noth- 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    1 3 

ing  to  do  with  each  other.  But  God  also  en- 
trusts to  His  children,  as  co-workers  with  Him- 
self, the  responsibihty  and  privilege  of  dividing 
light  from  darkness. 

We  must  lead  others  from  darkness  to  Christ, 
and  insist,  for  ourselves,  upon  a  rigidly  and  re- 
lentlessly sharp  Hne  of  cleavage  between  those 
things  which  belong  to  the  hght  and  to  the  dark- 
ness. May  the  God  and  Father  of  all  light,  and 
the  True  Light  which  lighteth  every  man,  keep 
our  vision  clear  and  our  will  true  ! 

yfFTER  their  kind  .  .  .  after  its  kind.  .  .  . 
-"  Be  fruitful,  and  multiply  .  .  .  after  its 
kind:  and  God  saw  that  it  was  good.  Genesis  i. 
20  to  25. 

Seven  times  in  these  half  dozen  verses  record- 
ing the  creation  of  the  fishes,  the  birds,  and  the 
beasts,  are  we  told  that  each  variety  of  creature 
was  made  after  its  own  kind.  And,  like  the 
earlier  vegetable  creation,  also  after  its  kind,  the 
life  purpose  of  these  fishes,  birds,  and  animals  was 
to  be  fruitful  and  multiply,  each  after  its  kind. 
Do  we  dare  face  the  thought  for  ourselves  ?  It 
is  a  fact  of  our  lives,  whether  we  dare  face  it  or 
not.  We  are  multiplying  ourselves  in  others  all 
the  time,  by  our  unconscious  personal  influence, 
and  we  are  helping  all  the  time  to  make  others 
after  our  kind.     Is  "  our  kind  "  of  the  sort  we 


14  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WA  TCH 

would  choose  for  all  our  friends  and  neighbours 
and  dear  ones  ?  Only  when  for  us  "  to  live  is 
Christ,"  dare  we  make  answer  to  that  question. 

T  ET  us  make  man  in  our  image  .  .  ,  let 
■^-^  them  have  dominion  over  the  fish  .  .  ,  the 
birds  .  .  .  the  cattle  .  .  .  and  over  every 
creeping  thing.  .  .  ,  Be  fruitful,  and  multiply, 
and  replenish  the  earthy  and  subdue  it.  Genesis  i. 
26  to  28. 

Four  facts  are  stated  about  man  and  God's 
purposes  for  man.  He  was  made  in  the  image, 
after  the  likeness,  of  God.  There  is  no  other 
such  stupendous  fact  in  our  existence  as  that. 
He  was  to  be  the  ruler,  the  master,  of  all  living 
things  in  the  earth  except  fellow  man  :  never  that. 
He  was  to  reproduce  himself  in  newly  created 
beings  like  himself :  and  we  are  all  doing  this  all 
the  time — apart  from  the  matter  of  physical  par- 
enthood— through  our  personal  influence  over 
others.  He  was  to  subdue  the  earth,  and  be  its 
lord  and  master. 

We  are  not  to  let  the  earth  nor  the  interests 
of  the  earth  be  our  master ;  that  is  a  complete 
reversal  of  God's  will  and  purpose  for  us.  We 
are  to  subdue  the  earth,  use  it,  rejoice  in  it  as  a 
good  gift  of  God,  and  also  keep  it  under,  in  its 
own  place  as  a  servant,  to  be  used  only  to  God's 
honour  and  glory. 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     1 5 

Because  we  are  fruitful  and  multiplying  our- 
selves all  the  time  in  our  persistent,  even  if  un- 
conscious, influence  over  others,  we  need  to  ask 
ourselves  often  whether  we  are  seeking  to  live 
the  kind  of  life  that  we  should  be  glad  to  see 
multiplied  all  about  us. 

No  one  can  have  real  dominion  over  even  a 
horse  or  a  dog  until  he  has  first  won  the  mastery 
of  himself.  Self-mastery  is  not  named  here,  be- 
cause it  was  not  lost  until  sin  came  in ;  but  we 
have  all  lost  it,  and  Christ-mastery  is  the  only 
thing  that  can  replace  it. 

God  has  made  me  in  His  image  after  His  own 
likeness.  That  is  enough.  How  can  I  continue 
to  defile  that  image  ! 

T7VERY  herb  yieldino^  seed  .  .  .  and  every 
■*— '  tree,  in  which  is  the  fruit  of  a  tree  yielding  seed; 
to  you  it  shall  be  for  food.     Genesis  i.  29  to  31. 

The  first  mention  of  food  for  man  records 
God's  provision  that  man  should  live  by  taking 
into  himself  that  which  had  in  it  life.  "  The 
herb  yielding  seed,"  and  "  the  fruit  of  a  tree 
yielding  seed,"  these  living,  multiplying,  life-giv- 
ing bodies  were  to  furnish  man's  food.  Later  on 
(Gen.  ix.  3),  animal  life  was  given  to  man  as 
food,  so  there  seems  to  be  no  Hmiting  of  man  to 
vegetarian  diet  in  the  Bible.  But  the  point  is 
that  bodily  life  can  be  nourished,  strengthened, 


1 6  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

sustained,  only  by  taking  unto  itself  that  which 
is  living.  And  so  of  our  spiritual  life.  It  can- 
not live,  be  strengthened  or  grow,  if  it  is  not  fed 
upon  hving  food.  When  our  chief  interests  are 
in  those  things  that  have  not  in  themselves 
eternal  hfe,  we  are  not  nourishing  our  life  by 
food  at  all.  What  of  our  books,  our  occupa- 
tions, our  conversations,  our  friendships?  Are 
we  partaking  of  Hving  food  ? 

/JND  Jehovah  God  planted  a  garden  eastward,  in 
-"  Eden ;  and  there  he  put  the  man  whom  he  had 
formed.  And  out  of  the  ground  made  Jehovah  God 
to  grow  every  tree  that  is  pleasant  to  the  sight,  and 
good  for  food  ;  the  tree  of  life  also  in  the  midst  of  the 
garden,  and  the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil. 
.  .  .  And  Jehovah  God  took  the  man,  and  put 
him  into  the  garden  of  Eden  to  dress  it  and  to  keep  it. 
And  Jehovah  God  commanded  the  man,  saying,  Of 
every  tree  of  the  garden  thou  mayest  freely  eat :  but 
of  the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  thou 
shall  not  eat  of  it:  for  in  the  day  that  thou  eatest 
thereof  thou  shall  surely  die.     Genesis  ii.  i  to  17. 

In  the  garden  which  was  the  home  of  man, 
God  put  every  good  thing  that  man  needed. 
Man  had  his  specific  duty  assigned  to  him ;  "  to 
dress  it  and  to  keep  it."  Moreover,  he  was  shown 
at  the  very  outset  the  possibility  of  wrong-doing, 
fully  warned  against  it,  and  told  what  the  full 
consequences  of  the  wrong-doing  would  be. 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     1/ 

That  is  my  life  to-day.  I  am  in  the  midst  of 
every  good  thing  that  I  need.  I  am  trusted  with 
the  "■  dressing  and  keeping  "  of  my  particular 
work,  my  assignment  for  to-day.  I  am  fully 
aware  of  the  possibihties  of  wrong-doing  to-day, 
and  know  that  the  consequence  of  a7iy  deliberate, 
conscious  wrong-doing  will  be,  just  so  far,  death  : 
death  to  the  opportunity  of  victory  it  offered  me, 
death  to  my  spiritual  power  for  the  time,  death 
in  other  ways  that  only  God  understands.  I  have 
Adam's  Eden  opportunity  to-day  in  the  un- 
written, clean,  white  page  that  opens  before  me. 
Jesus,  Saviour,  give  me  the  victory  which  Thou, 
the  Second  Adam,  didst  win  for  me  ! 

^TVD  Jehovah  God  said,  It  is  not  good  that  the 
-"  man  should  be  alone ;  I  will  make  him  a  help 
meet  for  him.  .  .  .  Therefore  shall  a  man  leave 
his  father  and  his  mother,  and  shall  cleave  unto  his 
wife :  and  they  shall  be  one  flesh.  Genesis  ii. 
i8  to  24. 

Husband  and  wife  were  thus  brought  together 
in  order  that  the  husband  might  have  in  the  wife 
a  partner,  a  help,  suited  to  his  needs.  And  the 
two  were  to  be  in  closer  relationship  than  any 
other  relationship  in  life,  closer  than  that  be- 
tween child  and  parent :  literally  one.  A  little 
later  the  wife  did  wrong,  and  was  the  occasion 
of  the  husband's  doing  wrong.     Unworthy  they 


1 8  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

both  were,  she  unworthy  of  him,  and  he  of  her. 
But  we  do  not  find  God  saying  that  because  of 
the  wife's  failure  at  a  certain  point  she  is  no 
longer  to  be  counted  a  suitable  partner,  a  help 
meet ;  nor  is  the  husband,  because  of  his  failure, 
to  be  cast  off.  They  are  otie,  and  their  oneness 
was  not  conditioned  upon  their  perfection,  but 
upon  each  one's  need  of  the  other  and  oppor- 
tunity of  helping  the  other. 

What  a  flood  of  light  this  throws  on  the  sacred 
marriage  relationship  to-day !  How  much  of  an 
allowance  does  it  make  for  divorce,  for  any  cause  ? 
Absolutely  none.  And  how  it  shuts  out  from 
the  home  life,  where  divorce,  perhaps,  would 
never  be  contemplated,  but  where  momentary 
separations  through  unlove,  impatience,  harsh 
judgment,  are  not  uncommon,  even  these  little 
breaks  with  God's  plan  that  husband  and  wife 
shall  cleave  unto  each  other,  and  be  one.  Yes, 
even  when  either  one  has  shown  unworthiness 
or  failed  in  any  way.  Failing  is  never  con- 
fined to  either  one.  The  selfless  love  of  Christ 
alone  can  fulfill  God's  purpose  for  your  married 
life. 

\70W  the  serpent  was  more  subtle  than  any 
-^  ^  beast  of  the  field  which  Jehovah  God  had  made. 
Genesis  iii.  i. 

Stop  right  there  in  your  reading !     We  think 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     19 

that  we  know  the  fact  of  this  statement,  but  we 
do  not.  More  subtle  than  anything  else  that  enters 
into  our  range  of  experience  or  our  powers  of  con- 
ception. We  have  all  had  such  encounters  with 
that  serpent,  we  have  met  defeat  so  constantly  at 
his  hands,  we  have  had  first-hand  knowledge,  so 
many  times,  of  his  subtlety,  that  we  think  that 
we  know  it  by  this  time.  Right  there  is  the 
subtlety.  He  wants  us  to  think  we  know,  while 
he  knows  that  we  do  not.  He  wants  us  to  think 
that  we  can  foresee,  this  morning,  how  he  is  going 
to  attack  us  to-day ;  and  while  we  are  thinking 
of  this,  and  praying  against  it,  and  watchfully 
guarding  against  it,  he  strikes  in  an  utterly  unex- 
pected way,  and  we  fall.  If  we  think  that  this  is 
because  we  are  young,  that  is  a  part  of  his 
subtlety :  he  will  trap  us  by  this  mistake  when 
we  are  older.  If  we  have  had  mature  experience 
of  him  for  forty,  fifty,  sixty,  seventy  years,  he 
has  subtleties  in  reserve,  still  unused  upon  us, 
which,  if  we  have  confidence  in  our  own  knowl- 
edge of  him,  will  make  us  as  foolish  babes  before 
him.  He  is  subtle,  more  subtle  than  any  other 
perverted  result  of  God's  creation. 

What  hope  is  there,  then,  against  him  ?  Just 
the  full  recognition  of  the  inspired  truth  of  this 
warning  statement  of  fact  which  God  has  given 
us  here  for  our  guidance  and  safety.  The  Devil 
is  more  subtle  than  any  planning  of  ours  can 


20  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

guard  against ;  but  he  cannot  outwit  God.  Jesus 
Christ  was  and  is  and  always  will  be  more  than  a 
match  for  him.  When  we  turn  in  helplessness 
from  our  own  efforts  against  him  to  God  and  our 
Saviour,  leaving  the  fight  to  the7n, — really  leaving 
it  to  them, — the  fight  is  won.  But  we  must  get 
forever  away  from  the  Devil- inspired  notion  that 
we  can  know  beforehand  how  and  where  he  will 
strike  next. 

^A^D  the  serpent  said  unto  the  woman,  Ye  shall 
-^-^   not  surely  die.     Genesis  iii.  2  to  4. 

Most  of  our  deliberate  sins  are  committed  be- 
cause we  beheve  that  the  disaster  from  commit- 
ting them  will  not  be  as  great  as  it  really  is. 
There  is  a  sense  in  which  the  result  of  every 
conscious  sin  is  death.  It  destroys  in  us  certain 
powers,  sensitiveness,  aspiration,  will,  right  de- 
sire, and  other  mysterious  but  vital  parts  of  our 
being,  and  leaves  us  in  a  form  of  death.  The 
mystery  of  the  exact  result  and  effect  of  sin,  even 
upon  one  who  is  a  disciple  of  Christ,  is  one  that 
we  shall  probably  never  understand  in  this 
world;  but  it  is  certain  that  the  effect  of  any  sin 
is  greater,  more  tragic  and  death-dealing,  than 
Satan  wants  us  to  realize.  "  Ye  shall  not  surely 
die,"  is  the  insistent  refrain  he  keeps  sounding 
and  pounding  at  us  :  and  we  believe  it :  but  it  is 
a  lie.     We  do  die, — not  as  souls  eternally  lost,  if 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    21 

we  are  in  Christ, — but  we  do  in  some  awful  way, 
at  tragic  cost  to  ourselves  and  the  kingdom,  re- 
ceive death-wounds  from  all  sin  that  we  take 
into  our  lives.  Christ  can  forgive  and  restore, 
but  there  is  a  loss  to  us,  as  there  was  to  Adam 
and  Eve,  which  in  this  life  at  any  rate  can  never 
be  made  up  to  us.  Only  when  we  begin  to 
realize  that  the  effects  of  the  least  sin  that  we 
can  think  of  are  more  unspeakably  awful  than 
anything  we  can  conceive  of,  shall  we  begin  to 
be  safeguarded  against  this  death-deahng  lie  of 
the  adversary  of  Christ  and  ourselves. 


(y^OlJR  eyes  shall  be  opened  .  .  .  knowing 
^  good  and  evil.  .  .  .  And  the  eyes  of  them 
both  were  opened,  and  they  .  .  .  hid  themselves 
from  the  presence  of  Jehovah  God.  .  .  .  I 
heard  thy  voice  in  the  garden,  and  I  was  afraid. 
Genesis  iii.  5  to  lo. 

The  result  of  the  first  sin  was  the  same  as  the 
result  of  every  sin  I  have  ever  committed,  and 
the  same  as  that  of  every  sin  that  ever  shall  be 
committed.  The  Devil  mixed  in  enough  truth 
in  his  lying  promises  to  be  plausible.  Adam 
and  Eve  did  not  become  "  as  God,"  they  did  not 
"  know  good  "  by  sinning  ;  but  their  eyes  were 
opened,  and  they  knew  evil.  They  gained  noth- 
ing by  sin  which  added  anything  to  their  needed 
knowledge,  equipment  or  usefulness  in  life.     No 


22  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

one  was  ever  helped  in  any  iota  of  his  knowledge 
or  being  by  sin.  Nothing  good  has  ever  come 
to  pass  from  that  day  to  this  as  a  result  or  a 
sequence  of  sin,  that  could  not  have  come  to 
pass  better  without  sin.  Sympathy,  breadth  of 
view,  needed  knowledge :  sin  never  gave  these 
to  any  one.  Jesus  had  all  these,  but  He  never 
sinned.  Let  us  be  quite  clear  as  to  this.  The 
only  new  knowledge  from  sin  was  a  knowledge 
of  the  bitterness,  the  misery,  the  awful  loss,  the 
taste  of  death,  which  sin  always  brings.  These 
things  do  not  enrich  life. 

The  worst  and  always  sure  result  of  sin  was 
that  the  man  and  woman  did  not  want  to  see 
God.  Before  this  they  had  rejoiced  in  God's 
presence  and  fellowship.  Now  they  wanted  to 
avoid  Him.  They  were  not  easy  in  the  thought 
of  being  with  Him,  for  they  had  put  a  barrier 
between  Him  and  themselves.  The  exultant 
joy,  the  thrill,  the  sheer  gladness  of  Hfe  in  Him, 
was  replaced  by  a  dull,  sodden,  gray  misery,  or 
worse,  indifference.  You've  known  it.  I  have. 
Why  should  Satan  ever  succeed  again  in  per- 
suading us  to  replace  the  one  with  the  other,  life 
with  death  ?  Even  when  he  offers  us — as  he 
will  before  the  day  is  over — that  which  is 
"good,"  «'a  dehght  tp  the  eyes,"  "to  be 
desired,"  oh,  think  of  what  lies  on  the  other 
side  1 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    23 

jyECAVSE    ihou  hast    done    this.     Genesis  iii. 
•^   II  to  21. 

That  is  the  key -word  of  this  dark  record.  The 
first  sin  had  its  immediate,  direct  result ;  and  so 
has  every  sin  that  was  ever  committed.  God's 
forgiveness  of  sin  does  not  make  it  as  though  it 
had  not  been, — not  even  His  forgiveness  to-day 
in  Christ.  God  forgave  this  man  and  woman ; 
they  could  not  have  lived,  otherwise;  but  His 
plan  for  their  lives  was  changed  because  of  their 
sin,  and  we  may  believe  His  plan  for  our  lives 
has  to  be  changed  every  time  we  sin.  He  still 
cared  for  them,  and  did  His  best  for  them,  but 
that  best  could  not  be  what  it  would  have  been 
had  they  not  sinned.  They  were  the  losers  for 
their  sin,  as  we  are  for  ours.  The  bright  side  of 
the  true  story  is  that  their  sin  did  not  make  God 
cast  them  off;  He  kept  hold,  and  the  very  pen- 
alties that  He  ordered  were  His  most  loving 
efforts  to  reclaim  them  to  the  best  that  might 
yet  be  for  them.  I  like  to  think  of  these  results 
of  their  sin,  not  as  penalties  or  punishments  as 
we  ordinarily  use  the  word,  but  as  medicine,  as 
remedies,  as  God's  safeguarding  care.  That  is 
the  only  meaning  of  what  we  call  punishment  at 
His  hands. 

So  it  is  with  us.  Let  us  never  forget ;  each 
sin  means  sure  loss ;  but  God  holds  on  to  us  in 
spite  of  our  sin. 


24  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

CT^HEREFORE  Jehovah  God  sent  him  forth  from 
-^     the  garden  of  Eden,  to  till  the  ground.     Genesis 
iii.  22  to  24. 

God  was  as  loving  when  He  sent  Adam  out  of 
Eden  as  when  He  placed  him  in  Eden.  The 
later  act  was  as  directly  an  act  of  love  as  the 
earlier  act.  For  God  is  love,  always  and  wholly 
love.  Everything  that  He  does  is  the  result  of 
His  love  and  because  of  His  love.  This  was  the 
most  loving  thing  He  could  do  for  Adam.  What 
we  call  our  punishments  for  our  sins  are  always 
the  most  loving  things  that  God  can  possibly  de- 
vise for  us.  Let  us  be  sure  of  this,  for  it  is  the 
truth.  God  would  have  been  unspeakably  un- 
loving toward  Adam  and  Eve  if  He  had  now 
allowed  them  to  be  exposed  to  the  peril  of  eating 
of  the  tree  of  hfe  and  thereby  living  forever  in 
their  sin-poisoned  natures.  Just  as  He  lovingly 
protected  them  from  that  tragedy,  so  He  pro- 
vided work  for  the  man,  that  he  might  have 
something  outside  Eden  to  do  and  to  live  for. 

Let  us  remember  that  it  is  God's  love  that  works 
in  all  the  hardships,  the  bitternesses  and  even  the 
miseries  resulting  from  our  own  sins.  When  our 
Edens  become  a  menace  to  us,  He  lovingly  takes 
them  away :  praise  His  name.  His  punishments 
are  loving ;  His  assignments  of  work  are  loving ; 
His  impoverishments  are  loving.  For  God  is 
love. 


I 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    25 

/f^D  Jehovah  had  respect  unto  Abel  and  to  his 
-"  offering :  but  unto  Cain  and  to  his  offering  he 
had  not  respect.     Genesis  iv.  i  to  8. 

God's  treatment  of  Cain  and  Abel  has  often 
seemed  to  many  unfair.  They  both  offered  what 
they  had  to  God ;  why  should  He  treat  them  so 
differently  ?  Had  not  Cain  a  good  right  to  be 
very  wroth?  But  from  the  simple  record  of 
these  two  verses,  and  our  knowledge  of  God,  with- 
out reading  farther  we  may  be  quite  sure  that 
there  was  something  wrong  in  connection  with 
Cain's  offering  and  that  Cain  knew  it  was  wrong. 
God  never  failed  to  respect  any  offering  of  His 
child  that  came  from  an  honest  purpose  to 
please  Him,  no  matter  how  faulty  the  offering 
was.  But  this  was  not  so  of  Cain;  there  was 
some  sin  of  which  he  was  fully  conscious,  either 
at  the  time  or  earlier,  and  while  it  remained 
he  could  not  "  get  right  with  God  "  by  any  of- 
fering. 

Cain's  killing  of  Abel  may  have  come  from  the 
fact  that,  after  telling  Abel  of  God's  *'  injustice," 
he  could  get  no  sympathy  from  Abel  for  his  po- 
sition ;  so,  in  desperation,  he  put  Abel  out  of  the 
way.  "  If  thou  doest  well,  shall  it  [thy  counte- 
nance] not  be  lifted  up  ?  "  That  is  all  we  need 
to  know.  When  the  heavens  are  brass,  and  it 
seems  as  though  God  had  turned  against  us,  let 
us  just  drop  on  our  knees  and  ask  Him  to  search 


26  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

us  out  and  show  us  what  is  the  sin  that  is  keep- 
ing Him  from  receiving  our  offering.  His  an- 
swer to  this  sincere  prayer  is  instant.  God  never 
rejects  the  offering  of  any  one  whose  life  is  first 
laid  at  His  feet. 

/1M  I  my  brother  s  keeper}  .  .  .  The  voice 
■^  of  thy  brother's  blood  crieth  unto  me.  Genesis 
iv.  9,  lo. 

There  are  more  kinds  of  murder  than  that  of 
Cain's.  Are  any  of  us  guilty  of  one  kind  ?  If 
we  should  be  asked  to-day  as  to  the  spiritual  life 
of  some  one  near  us  who  does  not  know  Christ 
as  Saviour  and  Lord,  "  Where  is  .  .  .  thy 
brother?  "  and  we  should  answer,  "  I  know  not: 
am  I  my  brother's  keeper  ?  "  and  the  reply  should 
come  back  in  condemnation :  •'  What  hast  thou 
done  ?  the  voice  of  thy  brother's  blood  crieth 
unto  me," — we  should  probably  think  we  were 
harshly  and  unfairly  judged.  But  Christ  plainly 
wants  us  to  feel  a  direct  and  overwhelming  re- 
sponsibility for  every  one  whom  we  should  reach 
for  Him,  and  who  has  not  yet  accepted  Him.  I 
am  the  keeper  of  these  my  brothers.  And  if  I 
am,  and  they  are  lost,  their  blood  cries  out  against 
me  unto  God.  When  once  we  fully  accept  this 
truth  and  its  obhgation,  there  will  be  compara- 
tively few  about  us  that  we  cannot  eventually 
save  by  winning  to  Christ. 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    2/ 

/i^O  Cain  went  out  from  the  presence  of  Je- 
•^^   hovah.     Genesis  iv.  ii  to  i6. 

We  do  that  with  every  sin,  whether  we  want 
to  or  not.  We  cannot  remain  in  God's  presence 
with  sin.  It  is  an  awful  price  to  pay.  Sin  costs 
too  much.  There  is  no  misery  known  to  man 
hke  the  misery  of  separation  from  God's  pres- 
ence. Nothing  can  make  up  for  it, — except  the 
sin-confessed,  sin-forgiven,  sin-removed  restora- 
tion that  is  in  Christ. 


^ABAL  ,  .  ,  the  father  of  such  as  dwell  in 
J  tents  and  have  cattle.  .  .  .  Jubal  .  .  . 
the  father  of  all  such  as  handle  the  harp  and 
pipe.  .  .  .  Tubal-c ably  the  forger  of  every  cut- 
ting instrument.     Genesis  iv.  17  to  22. 

These  three  men  were  known  then,  and  have 
been  known  through  the  centuries  since  then, 
for  the  particular  life  specialties  that  they  chose. 
You  and  I  will  be  remembered,  by  those  who 
know  us  at  all,  for  the  particular  life  specialties 
that  we  choose.  Some  outstanding  character- 
istic of  ours  will  live  longer  than  we.  What 
shall  it  be  ?  What  would  we  have  it  be,  if  we 
could  have  it  just  wliat  we  want  ?  We  can  have 
it  a  Hkeness  to  Christ,  if  we  will.  But  we  must 
be  about  it  to-day,  and  to-morrow,  and  every 
day,  if  it  is  to  be  that. 


28  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

rE  wives  of  Lamech,  hearken  unto  my  speech : 
for  I  have  slain  a  man.  Genesis  iv.  23,  24. 
In  direct  descent  from  the  first  murderer,  five 
generations  later,  came  the  first  polygamist 
(verse  19).  The  only  record  we  have  of  this 
man  is  of  his  polygamy,  and  then  of  his  boasting 
of  having  committed  murder  in  a  way  that  out- 
distanced his  ancestor-murderer.  Because  he 
was  wounded  and  bruised,  he  killed  ;  and  he  was 
proud  of  it.  Cain's  example  was  bearing  rich 
fruit.  Sin  always  does.  In  what  contrast  this 
stands  to  a  descendant  of  the  other  side  of 
Adam's  house,  through  Seth,  who,  when 
wounded  for  our  transgressions  and  bruised  for 
our  iniquities,  did  not  slay  and  avenge  Himself, 
but  only  loved  the  more ;  and  "  with  His  stripes 
we  are  healed."  Retaliation  unto  death :  love 
unto  life.  To  which  branch  of  Adam's  family 
do  we  choose  to  belong  ? 

f^OD  hath  appointed  me  another  seed  instead  of 
^-^  Abel ;  for  Cain  sleiv  him.     Genesis  iv.  25. 

When  Abel  was  dead,  it  must  have  seemed  to 
the  broken-hearted  mother  as  though  there  were 
nothing  left  to  live  for.  But  God  did  for  her 
just  what  He  always  does  for  us  after  our  best 
hopes  have  been  shattered  by  sin, — our  own  sin, 
or  some  one's  else.  He  gave  her  a  new  hope 
by  a  new  blessing.     We  destroy ;  God  rebuilds. 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    29 

Thus  it  goes  on  until  we  are  broken  down  and 
won  by  His  ceaselessly  rebuilding  love,  and 
then  we  become  builders  with  Him.  His  best 
blessings  are  always  ahead.  This  other  seed : 
of  whom  was  Seth  to  be  the  father,  down 
the  ages  ?  Of  Jesus  Christ.  Don't  reject 
the  latest  blessing  and  hope  that  God  may  be 
holding  out  to  you.  It  may  lead  straight  to 
Jesus  Christ,  for  yourself  or,  through  you,  for 
others. 

CT^HEN  began  men  to  call  upon  the  name  ofJe- 

-^     hovah.     Genesis  iv.  26. 

Which  means,  then  began  a  time  of  hopeful- 
ness and  real  achievement  for  man.  For  when 
we  begin  to  call  upon  God,  we  begin  to  let  God 
into  our  hves,  to  connect  ourselves  up  with 
power,  to  thrill  and  tingle  and  move  with  /z/e. 
God  never  ceases  to  call  upon  us  to  do  this,  but 
it  is  only  when  we  respond  to  His  call,  by  call- 
ing upon  Him,  that  He  can  do  for  us  what  He 
wants  to  do.  The  men  who  began  now  to  call 
upon  the  name  of  Jehovah  were  the  fathers  of 
Enoch,  and  Noah,  and  Abraham,  and  David,  and 
Jesus.  That  was  the  kind  that  God  made  of 
them,  because  they  called  upon  Him.  Have  we 
begun  to  call  upon  God,  as  a  habitual,  daily  prac- 
tice,— as  the  great,  saving,  empowering  fact  in 
our  lives  ? 


30  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

/N  the  day  that  God  created  man,  in  the  likeness  of 
God  made  he  him.  Genesis  v.  i,  2. 
Therefore  all  that  I  do  to-day  ought  to  be  such 
as  God  would  do  were  He  in  my  place.  If  I  am 
created  in  His  likeness,  my  actions  ought  to  be 
in  the  likeness  of  His  actions ;  my  thoughts,  of 
His  thoughts ;  my  desires,  of  His  desires  ;  my 
very  feelings  in  the  likeness  of  His  feelings. 
This  sounds  hopeless.  It  is  not;  the  moment 
that  Jesus  Christ  who  is  God  is  allowed  to  be 
the  real  Master  of  my  life  and  the  Holy  Spirit 
of  God  enters  into  me,  to  occupy,  possess,  sub- 
merge, overwhelm  myself  and  my  being  with 
Himself,  then  my  lost  Hkeness  to  God  begins 
to  be  regained,  restored,  recreated;  for  if  any 
man  be  in  Christ,  there  is  a  new  creation  :  and 
this  new  creation  is  only  the  returning  to  the 
first  creation,  made  in  the  likeness  of  God. 
Lord,  restore  me  to-day  to  Thy  likeness. 

yfND  Enoch  walked  with  God:  and  he  was  not; 
-^^  for  God  took  him.     Genesis  v.  3  to  27. 

For  seven  generations  the  monotonous  record 
gives  us  the  bare  facts  of  name,  family,  and  age ; 
then  the  monotony  is  broken  by  this  record  of  a 
man  who  lived  less  than  half  as  many  years  as 
the  youngest  of  the  others.  But  that  half  a  life- 
time— as  they  viewed  it — was  richer  and  fuller 
than  any  of  the  longer  hfetimes,  and  stands  out 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     3 1 

as  one  of  the  richest  and  fullest  in  the  entire 
Bible.  The  secret  of  it  was  simply  that  Enoch 
did  what  Adam  and  Eve  had  done  in  Eden  be- 
fore their  sin,  and  what  God  longs  to  have  us  all 
do  in  spite  of  our  sin,  after  Christ  has  taken  care 
of  that  sin  for  us :  he  walked  with  God.  That 
means  all  that  Christ  came  to  make  possible.  It 
means  the  oneness  with  God  that  sinks  self  in 
Him,  makes  His  will  our  will,  His  purposes  our 
only  purposes.  His  work  and  interests  our  only 
work  and  interests,  His  life  our  hfe.  A  year  of 
such  "  walking "  and  fellowship  makes  Methu- 
selah's nine  hundred  and  sixty-nine  years  brief 
and  poverty-stricken  in  contrast.  Why  should 
we  not  open  our  lives  completely  and  forever  to 
this  richness  that  Enoch  knew?  Let  us  do  it 
to-day  ! 

'\70AH  .  .  .  This  same  shall  comfort  us  in 
•^  ^  our  work  and  in  the  toil  of  our  hands,  which 
Cometh  because  of  the  ground  which  Jehovah  hath 
cursed.     Genesis  v.  28  to  32. 

Notice  what  Noah's  distinctive  life-work  was 
to  be.  He  was  to  comfort,  which  means  "  bring 
strength  to,"  mankind.  As  men  laboured  in 
their  work  against  a  curse  which  their  own  sin 
had  brought  them,  he  was  to  give  them  rest  and 
strength  for  their  toil  which  was  the  direct  result 
of  their  sin.     Now  see  how  he  did  this,  and  ful- 


32  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

filled  the  prophecy  of  his  father.  Back  in 
Gen.  iii.  17,  is  the  record  of  the  particular  curse, 
or  sin-result,  of  which  Lamech  spoke.  Later 
on,  in  viii.  21,  we  find  that,  following  Noah's 
faithfulness  in  having  obeyed  God  at  every  step 
of  the  way,  Noah  having  made  his  first  act 
after  the  deliverance  an  act  of  gratitude  and 
praise  to  God,  God  declares  that  He  "  will  not 
again  curse  the  ground  any  more."  This  seems 
to  be  the  record  of  His  removing  the  curse  which 
He  had  placed  upon  the  ground  in  Adam's  time, 
whatever  that  curse  was  (and  it  could  not  well 
have  been  the  necessity  for  honest  toil,  for  this  is 
a  blessing),  and  that  curse  seems  to  have  existed 
only  between  the  time  of  Adam  and  of  Noah. 
However  that  may  be,  the  practical  lesson  for  us 
is  that  Noah,  living  true  to  his  mission  nahem^ 
to  comfort  or  strengthen,  did  by  obedience  to 
God's  will  and  avowed  gratitude  to  God  bring  a 
great  blessing  to  all  mankind,  and  helped  men  to 
overcome  a  result  of  their  sin.  That  we  can  all 
do,  and  we  must  do  it  if  we  are  true  to  the  name 
Christian.  By  obedience  to  our  Captain's  Great 
Commission,  we  can  bring  unto  Him  those  that 
labour  and  are  heavy  laden  by  their  sin,  and  let 
Jesus  Christ  remove  their  curse  by  bearing  it  for 
them.  Noah  had  no  such  light  and  no  such 
privilege  as  we  have  in  Christ :  are  we  as  true  to 
our  light  and  privilege  as  he  was  to  his  ? 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     33 

/fND  Jehovah  said,  My  Spirit  shall  not  strive 
-^-^  with  man  for  ever,  for  that  he  also  is  flesh  :  yet 
shall  his  days  be  a  hundred  and  twenty  years.  Gen- 
esis vi.  I  to  4. 

There  comes  an  end  to  the  time  when  the 
Spirit  of  God  strives  with  the  spirit  of  a  man  who 
is  resisting  God ;  that  end  seems  to  be  marked 
by  the  end  of  man's  earthly  Hfe.  It  is  not  be- 
cause God  grows  tired  and  gives  him  up,  but  be- 
cause the  man  has  resisted  the  many  opportuni- 
ties and  invitations  so  long,  so  steadily  and 
habitually,  that  he  has  finally  placed  himself  be- 
yond the  power  of  God,  by  starving,  atrophying, 
killing  his  power  to  respond  to  God.  The  period 
when  he  might,  if  he  would,  accept  God,  seems 
to  be  the  period  of  his  earthly  life ;  and  we  may 
have  enough  confidence  in  God's  love  and  over- 
ruling power  to  believe  that  He  never  lets  any  un- 
saved Hfe  come  suddenly  to  an  end  without  know- 
ing that  that  life  has  rejected  Him  so  deliberately 
that  it  would  be  beyond  God's  power  to  save  it. 

But  what  an  exceeding  heavy  obligation  is 
placed  upon  us,  as  Christian  workers,  when  we 
realize  that  every  day  that  passes  in  the  lives  of 
those  near  us  who  have  not  yet  surrendered  to 
God  in  Christ  is  bringing  them  nearer  to  that 
time  when  the  Spirit  of  God  must  cease  to  strive 
longer  with  them !  We  can  be  used  to  prevent 
that  fatal  day  ever  coming  to  pass  in  their  lives, 


34  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

if  we  are  faithful  in  pressing  upon  them  the  un- 
searchably rich  joy  and  gain  of  their  accepting 
Christ,  and  if  we  are  faithful,  also,  in  prayer  to 
God  for  them.  What  a  challenge  to  personal  serv- 
ice in  witnessing  for  Christ  there  is  in  this  verse 
that  is  tucked  away  in  one  of  the  earliest  chap- 
ters of  Genesis,  in  the  midst  of  a  paragraph  of 
which  some  of  the  meanings  are  not  at  all  clear ! 
But  our  duty  is  clear. 

T^VERY  imagination  of  the  thoughts  of  his  heart 
■^-^  was  only  evil  continually.     Genesis  vi.  5  to  8. 

It  would  seem  that  there  cannot  be  any  more 
desperate  and  awful  description  of  the  possession 
of  a  man's  life  by  sin  than  is  given  here :  to  have 
all  the  pictures  of  our  God-given  power  of  im- 
agination,— that  faculty  whereby  we  may  see  the 
possibilities  of  life  in  Christ  and  the  very  splen- 
dours of  heaven  itself, — become  pictures  of  de- 
graded, hell-created  evil,  and  only  evil,  every 
minute  of  our  waking  and  dreaming  time.  When 
one  has  reached  that  stage  through  his  steady 
permission  and  cultivation  of  sin,  he  is  living  in 
hell,  and  God's  most  merciful  act  is,  as  the  He- 
brew of  verse  7  says,  to  blot  him  out.  Most  of 
us  know  something  of  the  almost  complete  pos- 
session by  sin  in  intervals  of  our  life,  when  our 
better  aspirations,  or  faculties  of  achievement, 
our  power  even  to  think  clearly,  were  paralyzed 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     35 

or  atrophied  by  the  tolerated  presence  of  sin  in 
one  form  or  another, — selfishness,  hatred,  im- 
purity. What  if  it  were  so  with  us  "  continu- 
ally," without  interruption  or  respite  !  That  is 
the  picture  drawn  here.  And  that  is  the  possible 
end  of  all  tolerated  sin.  Is  it  any  wonder  that 
God  wants  us  to  hate  it,  this  day,  as  desperately 
and  as  passionately  as  He  hates  it  ? 

IK  TO  AH  IV  as  a  righteous  man.  .  .  .  Noah 
-^  ^  walked  with  God.  .  .  .  And  the  earth  was 
corrupt  before  God,  and  the  earth  was  filled  with  vio- 
lence .  .  .  for  all  flesh  had  corrupted  their  way 
upon  the  earth.     Genesis  vi.  9  to  12. 

The  combination  of  the  most  awful  temptations 
in  their  assault  upon  me,  the  universally  low  tone 
of  the  environment  in  which  I  may  be  placed  to- 
day, the  entire  lack  of  any  encouragement  to 
hold  to  the  highest  standards, — all  these  forces 
and  influences  that  would  pull  me  down  are  not 
responsible  for  my  going  down  if  I  should  go 
down.  Only  one  thing  would  be  responsible, 
and  that  is  my  refusing  to  walk  with  God.  Noah 
was  righteous,  blameless,  and  the  secret  is  plainly 
stated.  He  had  nothing  to  influence  or  help  him 
up — except  God. 

JL/TAKE  ihee  an  ark  of  gopher  ivood;  .  .  . 
-^^  three  hundred  cubits  .  .  .  fifty  cubits 
.     .     .     thirty  cubits.     Genesis  vi.  13  to  16. 


36  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

What  a  privilege  and  relief  it  would  be  to  us 
all  if  only  God  would  plan  and  outline  and  de- 
scribe our  exact  work  for  us  to-day,  in  all  its  de- 
tails, as  to  measurements,  material,  arrangements, 
as  He  did  for  Noah  when  the  time  came  for 
Noah  to  build  an  ark  !  It  would  be  easy  to  go 
ahead  and  do  our  duty  then,  with  God's  clear 
specifications  in  hand.  But  that  is  exactly  what 
God  wants  to  do  for  us,  and  will  do  for  us,  if  we 
will  let  Him  as  Noah  did.  Noah  had  been  walk- 
ing with  God,  presumably  for  many  years,  as  a 
consistent  habit.  Only  to  such  a  man  can  God 
make  all  the  details  of  his  day's  duty  clear.  God 
has  a  plan  for  me  to-day  just  as  sharply  defined 
in  all  its  details  as  the  measurements  and  archi- 
tecture of  the  ark.  He  wants  to  hold  me  to  this 
day's  plan  as  closely  as  Noah  let  Him  hold  him 
to  the  ark  building.  And  God  can  make  every 
detail  of  this  day's  building  clear  to  me,  if  I 
will  let  Him.  Consecrated,  wholly  surren- 
dered, Christ-sensitized  responsiveness  and  obe- 
dience to  the  Spirit's  slightest  whisper  all  the 
day  long — and  the  ark  is  built.  That  is  the 
secret. 

yfND  I,  behold,  I  do  bring  the  flood  of  waters 
-^-*  upon  the  earth,  to  destroy  all  flesh.  .  .  . 
But  I  will  establish  my  covenant  with  thee  ;  and  thou 
shall  come  into  the  ark^  thou,  and  thy  sons,  and  thy 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    3/ 

w'lfz,  and  thy  sons'  wives  with  thee.  .  .  .  Thus 
did  Noah.     Genesis  vi.  17  to  22. 

The  death  penalty  was  declared ;  and  with  it 
the  way  of  escape.  And  that  is  exactly  God's 
message  to  me  to-day.  All  flesh  that  stays  out 
of  the  New  Covenant  that  God  has  established  is 
to  be  destroyed — forever.  All  who  will  may  en- 
ter into  the  covenant,  and  take  with  them  their 
families.  Some  people  say  that  they  could  not 
believe  in  a  God  who  made  a  hell.  They  seem 
to  forget  that  with  the  hell  He  provides  a  way 
of  escape :  He  establishes  a  Covenant  for  all  who 
will.  And  the  man  who  enters  into  that  Cove- 
nant and  leaves  out  a  single  member  of  his  family 
is  not  up  to  the  standard  of  Noah. 

The  New  Testament  (or  New  Covenant)  way 
of  putting  this  flood  truth  for  the  day's  needs  is 
this  :  God  is  faithful,  who  .  .  .  will  with  the 
temptation  make  also  the  way  of  escape. 

yJND  Jehovah  said  unto  Noah,  Come  thou  and 
•^^  all  thy  house  into  the  ark;  for  thee  have  I  seen 
righteous  before  me  in  this  generation.    Genesis  vii.  i. 

There  it  is  again :  "  thee  aitd  all  thy  house.'' 
God  offered  Noah  no  higher  privilege,  and  no 
heavier  obligation,  than  He  offers  us.  When  He 
establishes  His  New  Covenant  in  Christ  with  any 
one  to-day,  He  calls  that  one,  in  coming,  to  bring 
along  his  whole  house.     Any  one  really  righteous 


38  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

person  in  any  household,  who  is  not  only  saved  by 
Christ  for  the  next  world  but  wholly  mastered  by 
Christ  in  this  world,  so  that  Christ  lives  in  him, 
and  to  him  to  live  is  Christ,  is  Christ's  key  to 
the  lives  of  all  in  that  household.  If  any  one  in 
the  household  fails  to  come  into  the  New  Cove- 
nant, the  one  who  is  already  in  is  as  guilty  as 
Noah  would  have  been  had  he  closed  the  door 
of  the  ark  against  one  of  his  family.  We  must 
be  sobered  by  the  solemn  responsibility  of  this 
truth,  and  rejoice  in  its  blessed  privilege.  For 
there  can  be  no  doubt  about  all  coming  when  we 
are  ready  to  meet  the  cost :  that  God  shall  see  us 
righteous  before  Him  to  the  extent  of  our  self- 
death  in  Christ. 

T^VERY  living  thing  that  I  have  made  will  I  des- 
-^-^  troy  [Heb.,  blot  ow/]  from  off  the  face  of  the 
ground.  And  Noah  did  according  unto  all  that  Je- 
hovah commanded  him.     Genesis  vii.  2  to  5. 

God  can  destroy  sin.  God  will  destroy  sin. 
The  people  of  the  earth  were  so  given  up  to  sin, 
saturated  by  it,  Hving  in  it  and  of  it,  eaten  up  by 
it,  that  God's  great  love  for  mankind  compelled 
only  one  thing:  His  blotting  out  of  this  vast 
black  flood  of  sin  by  a  cleansing  flood  of  water, 
and  giving  the  race  a  new  opportunity  in  the 
family  that  was  not  thus  sold  to  sin.  And  that 
same  love,  and  even  the  same  method,  in  princi- 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    39 

pie,  is  my  hope  to-day.  God  can  destroy  my 
sin.  God  will  destroy  my  sin.  He  blots  it  out 
in  a  flood  mightier  than  that  of  the  waters — the 
blood  of  Jesus  Christ.  And  He  saves  me,  that 
in  this  Christ,  I,  hke  Noah,  may  do  according 
unto  all  that  Jehovah  commands  me.  Let  me 
trust  this  heavenly  Father  to-day,  and  His  Son 
my  Saviour — Christ,  to  blot  out  my  sin  and  to 
keep  me  from  sinning  this  day.  That  is  what 
Christ  will  do  for  me  if  my  faith  in  Him  is  only 
daring  enough. 

/fND  Noah  was  six  hundred  years  old.  .  .  . 
-^-*  And  Noah  went  in,  and  his  sons,  and  his  wife, 
and  his  sons'  wives  with  him,  into  the  ark,  because  of 
the  waters  of  the  flood.     Genesis  vii.  6,  7. 

Noah  did  not  let  the  matter  end  with  the  fact 
that  God  had  called  him  to  come  himself  and 
bring  all  his  household  with  him  into  the  ark,  the 
place  of  salvation.  He  did  not  dismiss  the  matter 
with  a  single  earnest  invitation  to  his  family  to 
come  in.  He  saw  that  they  went  in, — his  wife, 
and  his  sons,  and  his  sons'  wives.  There  is  an 
enormous  difference  between  understanding  God's 
call,  and  passing  on  God's  call,  and  seeing  that  it 
is  accepted.  The  difference  may  be  the  difference 
between  eternal  life  and  eternal  death.  So  God 
looks  to  us  to  see  that  every  member  of  our 
household   is   not  only  sought,  but  is  brought 


40  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

in, — ill  to  the  highest  spiritual  privileges  and  ex- 
periences that  we  are  having  or  have  had.  It 
must  be  done  because  of  the  waters  of  the  flood : 
the  results  of  sin.  And  Noah  was  not  a  young 
man  when  he  did  this.  If  we  are  no  longer 
young,  and  have  even  wasted  our  opportunities 
with  our  own  dear  ones  for  years — the  door  is 
still  open,  the  obligation  is  still  upon  us.  In 
Christ  it  can  be  done. 

r\N  the  same  day  were  all  the  fountains  of  the 
^^  great  deep  broken  up,  and  the  windows  of  heaven 
were  opened.  And  the  rain  was  upon  the  earth  forty- 
days  and  forty  nights.     Genesis  vii.  8  to  12. 

When  God  cleanses  from  sin.  He  does  it  thor- 
oughly and  completely.  His  cleansing  of  sin 
out  of  the  life  of  any  man  who  will  let  Him  is 
done  in  this  same  thorough  way.  He  opens  the 
flood  of  the  cleansing  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  upon 
him,  and  on  the  same  day  He  breaks  up  the 
fountains  of  the  deep  within  that  man's  heart ; 
and  so  from  without  and  from  within  the  sin  is 
flooded  out  of  his  life.  Until  that  is  done  Christ 
can  get  no  fair  chance  at  a  life.  We  must  let 
Him  cleanse  us  completely  from  our  sin  before 
He  can  keep  us  from  continued  sinning.  Some 
who  are  trying  to  serve  Christ  have  never  yet  let 
God  in  Christ  purge  the  sin  wholly  out  of  their 
lives.     Father,  show  me  this  morning  the  mean- 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    4I 

ing  of  sin  in  all  its  blackness  and  horror  and 
death,  that  I  may  let  Thee  cleanse  me  from  it  as 
Thou  didst  cleanse  Thy  world  with  the  waters 
of  the  flood.  "  Wash  me,  and  I  shall  be  whiter 
than  snow  "  (Ps.  li.  7). 

"  There  is  a  fountain  filled  with  blood 
Drawn  from  Immanuel's  veins. 
And  sinners  plunged  beneath  that  flood 
Lose  all  their  guilty  stains." 

/J  ND  they  went  in  unto  Noah  into  the  ark,  two 
-^  and  two  of  alt  flesh  wherein  is  the  breath  of  life. 
Genesis  vii.  13  to  16. 

God's  salvation  by  the  ark  was  just  as  com- 
plete and  thorough  as  God's  cleansing  by  the 
flood.  As  we  read  over  this  entire  passage,  its 
detailed  itemization  and  reiterations  seem  in- 
tended to  leave  us  in  no  doubt  as  to  this.  Every 
one  in  Noah's  household,  and  the  chosen  repre- 
sentatives of  every  beast,  and  of  all  cattle,  and  of 
every  creeping  thing,  and  of  every  bird, — all 
were  saved.  When  God  starts  in  to  save,  He 
saves  to  the  uttermost.  So  Christ  "  is  able  to 
save  to  the  uttermost  [Gr.,  completely]  them 
that  draw  near  unto  God  through  Him  "  (Heb. 
vii.  25). 

And  these  were  saved  •*  unto  Noah,  into  the 
ark."  Noah  brought  them.  God  wants  certain 
souls  saved  unto  ;;/^,  into  Christ.     He  wants  me 


42  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

to  bring  them  in,  bring  them  to  Christ.  He  may 
have  some  prepared  and  ready  for  this  to-day, 
only  awaiting  my  invitation.  Noah  met  his  re- 
sponsibility, because  he  kept  so  close  to  God, 
daily  and  habitually  walking  with  Him.  Think 
of  the  obligation  and  the  privilege  that  God  lays 
upon  us  :  that  souls  shall,  by  coming  unto  us, 
enter  into  Christ ! 

/JND  the  flood  was  forty  days  upon  the  earth  ; 
■^■^  and  the  waters  increased,  and  hare  up  the  arky 
and  it  was  lifted  up  above  the  earth.     Genesis  vii.  17. 

The  very  thing  that  destroyed  all  who  were 
opposing  God  lifted  up  to  safety  those  who  were 
working  with  God.  And  \.h.Q  first  mentioned  re- 
sult of  the  destroying  flood  is  not  destruction, 
but  uplifting  and  safety  to  God's  loyal  children. 
What  need  we  fear  ?     Why  should  we  ever  fear  ? 

yfND  the  flood  was  .  .  .  upon  the  earth; 
-^-^  and  the  waters  increased  .  .  .  and  the 
waters  prevailed,  and  increased  greatly  .  .  . 
and  the  waters  prevailed  exceedingly  ;  .  .  .  and 
all  the  high  mountains  that  were  under  the  whole 
heaven  were  covered.     Genesis  vii.  17  to  22. 

That  is  the  way  God's  cleansing  flood  of  puri- 
fication works.  How  the  Bible  writer  piles  up 
the  description  as  the  waters  pile  up  !  And  not 
until    every    high   mountain   under   the   whole 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    43 

heaven  was  covered,  we  are  told,  did  the  flood 
cease  to  increase  and  prevail.  What  a  type  is 
this  of  the  cleansing  flood  of  the  blood  of  Jesus 
Christ !  His  redemption  is  upon  the  earth,  and 
it  is  increasing,  and  prevailing,  and  it  shall  pre- 
vail and  increase  greatly,  and  prevail  exceedingly 
until  all  the  high  mountains  of  sin  under  the 
whole  heaven  shall  be  covered.  In  my  life  there 
have  been  mountains  of  sin  so  high  that  it  did 
not  seem  possible  for  them  to  be  covered.  But 
they  have  been, — not  only  exceedingly,  but  ex- 
ceeding abundantly  above  all  that  I  could  ask  or 
think. 

/f^^  every  living  thing  was  destroyed  thai  was 
-"  upon  the  face  of  the  ground,  both  man,  and 
cattle,  and  creeping  things,  and  birds  of  the  heavens  ; 
and  they  were  destroyed  from  the  earth  :  and  Noah 
only  was  left,  and  they  that  ivere  with  him  in  the  ark. 
Genesis  vii.  23,  24. 

The  word  that  closes  the  record  of  the  flood's 
destruction  is  a  word  of  life,  not  death.  Much 
had  been  wiped  out,  but  not  they  who  were  liv- 
ing according  to  God's  will.  Nor  shall  they 
ever  be. 

/fND  God  remembered  Noah.     Genesis  viii.  i. 
-"     When  there  does  not  seem  to  be  anything 
left  in  the  world  but  God  and  myself, — when 


44  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

everything  else  is  swept  away, — that  is  enough  : 
God  remembers  me.  And  God  is  all  love  and 
all  power. 

^A^D  God  made,  a  wind  to  pass  over  the  earth, 
-^  and  the  waters  assuaged;  and  the  fountains  also 
of  the  deep  and  the  windows  of  heaven  were  stopped, 
and  the  rain  from  heaven  was  restrained ;  and  the 
waters  returned  from  off  the  earth  continuall/.  Gen- 
esis viii.  I  to  5. 

All  this  because  God  remembered  Noah.  The 
forces  of  heaven  and  earth  were  enlisted,  re- 
versed, ordered  about,  solely  because  God  re- 
membered Noah,  and  had  plans  for  him.  God 
has  not  forgotten  you ;  He  has  plans  for  you. 
He  will  as  readily  order  about  the  forces  of  the 
universe  on  your  account  as  He  did  on  Noah's. 
His  plans  for  Noah  were  also  plans  for  the  whole 
world  through  Noah.  So  they  are  for  you  :  He 
will  use  you  for  the  good  of  the  whole  world,  if 
you  will  let  Him. 

DUT  the  dove  found  no  rest  for  the  sole  of  her 
■^  foot,  and  she  returned  unto  him,  .  .  .  and 
the  dove  came  in  to  him  at  eventide  ;  and,  to,  in  her 
mouth  an  olive-leaf     Genesis  viii.  6  to  12. 

God  knows  just  when  to  withhold  from  us  any 
visible  sign  of  encouragement,  and  when  to  grant 
us  such  a  sign.     How  good  it  is  that  we  may 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    45 

trust  Him  anyway  !  When  all  visible  evidences 
that  He  is  remembering  us  are  withheld,  that  is 
best :  He  wants  us  to  realize  that  His  word,  His 
promise  of  remembrance,  is  more  substantial  and 
dependable  than  any  evidence  of  our  senses. 
When  He  sends  the  visible  evidence,  that  is  well 
also :  we  appreciate  it  all  the  more  after  we  have 
trusted  Him  without  it.  Those  who  are  readiest 
to  trust  God  without  other  evidence  than  His 
word  always  receive  the  greatest  number  of 
visible  evidences  of  His  love. 

yf^D  in  the  second  month,  on  the  seven  and 
-"  twentieth  day  of  the  month,  was  the  earth  dry. 
Genesis  viii.  13,  14. 

The  flood  was  no  mere  forty-day  test,  as  most 
people  are  inclined  to  think.  Noah  and  his 
family  were  shut  in  the  ark  for  a  year  and  ten 
days  (cf.  vii.  11).  God's  tests  sometimes  last  a 
good  while.  But  their  outcome  is  worth  wait- 
ing for. 

^A^D  Noah  went  forth,  and  his  sons,  and  his  wife, 
-^  and  his  sons'  wives  with  him.  Genesis  viii. 
15  to  19. 

God  had  kept  them  imprisoned  for  over  a  year 
because  of  His  surpassing  love  for  them.  And 
God  now  released  them  from  prison  into  a  new, 
sin-cleansed  freedom,  for  the  same  reason.     We 


46  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

can  trust  God  for  our  imprisonments,  and  we  can 
trust  God  for  our  releases.  He  will  not  continue 
the  one,  nor  defer  the  other,  a  moment  too  long. 
In  each  case,  God's  love  for  others  yet  unborn 
was  working  in  and  through  His  love  for  Noah 
and  his  family.  So  His  love  for  us  always  looks 
out  toward  others  through  us. 

/iND  Noah  builded  an  altar  unto  Jehovah  ,  ,  . 
-^■*-  and  offered  burnt-offerings.  Genesis  viii.  20 
to  22. 

May  we  be  as  quick  to  thank  God  for  every 
deliverance  and  blessing  as  we  are  to  pray  for 
them  when  they  are  needed ! 

To  some  it  may  seem  hard  that  certain  of  these 
innocent  animals  and  birds  were  saved  during 
the  long  year  of  flood  and  destruction,  only  to 
lose  their  life  as  they  were  offered  up  in  sacrifice 
to  God.  But  they  were  simply  entering  into  the 
highest  privilege  that  God  offers  us :  to  lose  hfe 
and  self  in  sacrificial  service  to  Him.  That  was 
worth  having  life  prolonged  for  a  year.  The 
animal  sacrifice  was  only  a  type :  with  us  it  may 
be  real.  God  has  spared  us  and  kept  us  through 
all  the  dangers  of  our  hfe  so  far,  in  order  that  we 
may  find  life  by  losing  our  lives  in  sacrificial 
service  to  Him.  Shall  we  come  up  to  the  high 
standard  and  attainment  of  these  animals  of 
Noah's  ark  ? 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    A,7 

yf^D  God  blessed  Noah  and  his  sonSj  and  said 
-^-^  unto  them,  Be  fruitful,  and  multiply,  and  re- 
plenish the  earth.     Genesis  ix.  i. 

As  Noah  and  his  sons  were  saved  and  com- 
missioned to  be  fruitful  and  replenish  the  earth 
physically,  so  we  are  saved  and  commissioned  to 
be  fruitful  spiritually,  and  replenish  the  kingdom. 
We  must  constantly  be  the  means,  under  God,  of 
the  new  birth  of  souls  in  Christ,  thus  multiplying 
our  own  spiritual  birth  and  salvation,  if  we  would 
show  the  best  evidence  of  loyalty  to  our  Saviour. 


DUT  flesh  with  the  life  thereof  which  is  the  blood 
•^  thereof,  shall  ye  not  eat.     Genesis  ix.  2  to  7. 

Here  is  an  early  gleam  of  the  great  truth  which 
runs  throughout  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New, 
that  the  blood  is  the  life :  the  truth  that  found  its 
climax  and  culmination  in  the  outpouring  of  the 
blood  of  the  Son  of  God,  that  we  might  have  life, 
His  life,  spotless,  sinless,  deathless.  May  I  give 
His  white  life  the  mastery  over  mine  to-day ! 

/ESTABLISH  my  covenant  with  you    .     .     . 
/  will  establish  my  covenant  with  you.    Genesis 
ix.  8  to  II. 

When  God  makes  us  a  promise,  or  gives  us 
His  word  on  any  point,  two  facts  are  to  be  re- 
membered :  the  thing  zs  done  ("  I  establish  "),  for 


48  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

He  has  said  it,  and  there  is  no  such  thing  as  time 
with  God,  only  an  ever-present  eternity ;  and  the 
thing  will  be  done  ("  I  will  establish  "),  for  God 
is  dealing  with  us  who  Hve  here  in  time,  and  that 
which  is  finished  with  Him  must  yet  be  shown 
forth  to  us  in  our  future. 


/i^D  the  how  shall  be  in  the  cloud;  and  I  will 
•^-^  look  upon  it,  that  I  may  remember  the  everlast- 
ing covenant  between  God  and  every  living  creature 
of  all  flesh  that  is  upon  the  earth.     Genesis  ix.  12  to  17. 

If  God's  love  is  so  far-reaching  that  He  puts 
on  record  a  definite  covenant  between  Himself 
and  the  animals,  birds,  fishes,  and  every  tiniest 
creature  of  the  earth,  and  then  declares  that  He 
sets  up  a  perpetual  reminder  for  Himself,  that  He 
may  never  forget  this  pledge  that  He  has  made, — 
then  you  and  I  need  have  no  fear  of  being  over- 
looked or  left  out  of  God's  infinite  but  particular- 
ized love,  for  a  hair's  breadth  of  time. 


CT^HESE  three  were  the  sons  of  Noah :  and  of  these 
■^     was  the  whole   earth  overspread.     Genesis  ix. 

18,  19. 

It  behooved  them  to  be  pretty  careful  of  their 

ways,  for  of  them  was  the  whole  earth  overspread. 

How  would  it  affect  us  to  know  that  the  earth 

was  now  to  be  populated  with  the  kind  of  people 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    49 

that  we  are?  That  is  just  what  is  happening, 
within  our  range  of  influence.  We  are  making 
people  more  hke  ourselves  every  day  we  live, 
whether  we  want  to  or  not.  It  pays  to  guard 
the  influence  with  which  we  are  overspreading 
our  world. 

TJE  was  a  mighty  hunter  before  Jehovah:  where- 
-^^  fore  it  is  said,  Like  Nimrod  a  might/  hunter 
before  Jehovah.     Genesis  x.  i  to  32. 

The  special  mention  that  Nimrod  did  his  hunt- 
ing **  before  Jehovah  "  seems  to  imply  that  this, 
the  chief  activity  of  his  life,  for  which  he  was 
noted,  was  done  before,  or  in  the  conscious  pres- 
ence of,  God,  and,  therefore,  as  unto  God.  If  a 
huntsman  in  that  early  and  primitive  age  of  the 
world  could  so  faithfully  live  unto  God  in  his 
life-work,  surely  we  ought  to  measure  up  to  his 
standard  to-day  in  our  enlightened  and  privileged 
Christ-era.  Is  our  life  so  God-centred  that 
every  one  says  of  us,  "  T/iat  man  is  living  before 
Jehovah  "  ? 

f^OME  let  us  build  us  a  city.  .  .  .  So  Je- 
^  hovah  scattered  them  abroad  .  .  .  and  they 
left  off  building  the  city.     Genesis  xi.  i  to  9. 

This  passage  is  mysterious  and  difficult,  but 
it  seems  to  have  this  message :  these  people 
were  wholly  selfish  in  their  purposes :    "  Let  us 


50  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

make  us  a  name ;  lest  we  be  scattered."  There 
was  no  purpose  to  serve  the  rest  of  the  world, 
only  self-glorification  and  self-preservation.  But 
effectiveness  to  this  end  is  unity  and  cooperation, 
for  in  such  there  is  always  strength,  even  for  evil 
purposes.  God  points  this  out  when  He  says 
that  now  nothing  will  be  withholden  from  them, 
of  their  unworthy  purposes.  It  would  have  been 
an  unloving  thing  for  God  to  permit  the  accom- 
plishment, in  the  strength  of  united  effort,  of  their 
self-centred  purposes :  so,  in  love  here,  as  al- 
ways, He  defeats  the  end  which  would  only  have 
harmed  them,  and  breaks  up  the  unholy  syndi- 
cate. What  a  blessing  for  them  that  they  left  off 
building  the  city  !  What  a  blessing  for  us  when 
God  breaks  up  our  plans  for  some  end  that — 
even  though  our  intentions  are  good — would 
only  harm  us  and  others  if  we  succeeded!  It 
was  of  God's  great  love  that  "  they  left  off  build- 
ing," for  "  except  Jehovah  build  the  house,  they 
labour  in  vain  that  build  it." 

OH  EM    .    .    .    hegat  Arpachshad   .    .    .    Terah 
^   begat  Abram.     Genesis  xi.  lo  to  28. 

This  long,  dry  hst  of  "  begats,"  just  a  lot  of 
genealogy,  does  not  seem  to  mean  much,  nor  do 
the  lives  of  the  men  named  in  it  seem  especially 
worthy  of  any  record  whatsoever.  But — certain 
ones  of  them  were  leading  on,  in  direct  Hne  of 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    5 1 

fatherhood,  first  to  Abraham,  one  of  the  giant, 
heroic  figures  of  all  ages,  and  beyond  to  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Son  of  God  and  the  Saviour  of  men. 
It  was  worth  while  to  have  a  place  and  a  part  in 
that!  They  did  not  know  for  what  God  was 
using  them ;  nor  do  we  know  for  what  God  is 
using  us.  But  any  one  of  them  might  have 
robbed  himself  of  his  intended  place  in  this  line, 
as  we  may  rob  ourselves  of  the  privilege  God  in- 
tends for  us.  May  we  be  willing,  by  simple 
duty-doing,  to  stay  in  our  seemingly  common- 
place position  of  high  privilege 

/f^D  Sard  was  barren  ;  she  had  no  child.     Gen- 
-^-^   esis  xi.  29  to  32. 

The  barren  wife  was  to  become  the  mother,  in 
ancestry,  of  the  Son  of  God.  Barrenness  was  a 
heart-breaking  sorrow  to  any  Oriental  woman. 
Emptiness  of  life  and  defeat  of  our  purposes  is  a 
heart-breaking  sorrow  to  us.  But  Sarai  came  to 
see  the  time  when  her  barrenness  was  only  the 
testing  of  her  faith  to  a  richer  privilege  than  she 
could  have  dreamed  of.  So  may  our  present  de- 
feat be.  Milcah,  proud  and  happy  mother, 
stayed  in  the  comforts  of  the  Chaldean  home. 
Sarai,  her  sister-in-law,  childless  and  crushed, 
left  the  homeland  and  went  out  into  a  world  of 
unknown  dangers  and  hardships.  Which  of  the 
two  would  you  rather  be  now  ? 


52  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

f^ET  thee  out  of  thy  country,  .  .  .  unto  the 
^^  land  that  I  will  show  thee  :  .  .  .  and  I  will 
bless  thee,  .  .  .  and  be  thou  a  blessing.  Gen- 
esis xii.  I  to  3. 

Four  great  events  sure  to  come  into  the  life  of 
every  one  who  will  let  it  be  so,  and  to  keep  com- 
ing day  after  day,  are  set  down  for  me  in  unmis- 
takable clearness  in  these  few  words.  God  asks 
me  to  get  out  of  the  country  that  I  had  supposed 
was  my  country,  to  abandon  the  thing  that  I  had 
thought  was  surely  for  me.  He  asks  me  to  do 
this  in  order  that  I  may  enter  upon  a  new  terri- 
tory, or  matter,  or  plan,  which  is  His  choice  for 
me,  and  which  He  will  show  me, — yet  which  He 
cannot  show  me  until  I  abandon  my  old  position. 
If  I  do  this.  He  will  send  me  a  blessing  which 
He  cannot  otherwise  send  me  unless  I  do  this. 
And  the  purpose  of  all  this — my  letting  go  of 
the  old,  my  entering  into  the  new,  my  being 
blessed  in  so  doing — is  what  ?  Just  so  that  my 
life  may  be  a  blessing  to  others. 

There  will  be  some  call  upon  me  to-day  to  do  this 
very  thing  :  to  abandon  my  own  position,  in  some 
matter,  for  God's.     May  I  obey  on  the  instant  ! 

00  Abram  went,  as  Jehovah  had  spoken  unto 
^  him,  .  .  .  and  they  went  forth  to  go  into 
the  land  of  Canaan ;  and  into  the  land  of  Canaan 
they  came.     Genesis  xii.  4,  5. 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    53 

Is  not  that  a  glorious  assurance  for  me  to-day  ? 
God  said,  Set  out  for  the  goal  that  I  show  thee. 
Abram  set  out  for  it ;  and  Abram  reached  it. 
No  man  ever  failed  to  reach  any  goal  that  God 
set  for  him  if  he  simply  obeyed  God.  Yet  God 
sets  stupendous  goals  for  us  all.  They  are  utterly 
beyond  our  reach ;  but  we  are  going  to  reach 
them,  for  He  has  said  so.  And  reach  them  now 
and  here,  in  this  life,  as  Abram  did.  How  this 
lifts  us  out  of  the  racking  uncertainties  and  agon- 
izing strain  of  life  that  we  see  in  those  who  do 
not  know  God  and  His  promises  and  His  power ! 
How  it  rebukes  and  forbids  another  instant  of 
worry  in  our  life  so  long  as  we  live !  Notice, 
too,  that  this  stupendous  goal  came  to  Abram — 
both  its  assigning  and  its  reaching — late  in  life. 
If  we  are  past  our  youth,  that  is  no  reason 
for  any  uncertainty  or  fear  as  to  great  things 
ahead,  as  yet  unknown  and  unattempted.  When 
God  says.  Go,  we  are  to  start,  and  we  are  to  ar- 
rive :  let  us  never  forget  that. 

An  old  Frenchman,  veteran  of  Napoleon's 
campaigns,  was  asked  by  a  stranger  what  the 
men  thought  of  Napoleon.  His  eyes  snapped 
with  old-time  fire  as  he  cried  out :  "  We  loved 
him.  We  believed  in  him.  Napoleon  say, '  Go 
to  the  moon ! '  Every  man  start.  Napoleon 
find  the  way." 

Shall  we  not  have  as  much  faith  in  our  om- 


54  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

nipotent  heavenly  Father  ?  "  If  God  is  for  us, 
who  is  against  us  ?  He  that  spared  not  His  own 
Son,  but  dehvered  Him  up  for  us  all,  how  shall 
He  not  also  with  Him  freely  give  us  all  things  ?  " 
(Rom.  viii.  31,  32). 

And  Abram  did  not  enter  alone  into  the  place 
of  promise ;  those  who  were  dearest  to  him,  and 
for  whom  he  had  special  responsibihties,  went 
with  him.  If  God  has  given  me  a  vision  of  great 
blessings,  which  are  so  far  ahead  that  they  seem 
impossible  of  realization,  too  difficult  and  too 
good  to  be  true,  let  me  be  sure  that,  by  simple 
faith  and  unswerving  obedience,  into  those  bless- 
ings I  shall  come.  And  those  who  are  com- 
mitted to  my  care,  and  whom  I  love  most,  are 
to  share  them  with  me.  May  I  never  hinder 
God  by  doubting  this  ! 

/fND  the  Canaanite  ivas  then  in  the  land  .  .  . 
-"  and  there  builded  he  an  altar  unto  Jehovah,  who 
appeared  unto  him.  And  he  removed :  .  .  .  and 
there  he  builded  an  altar  unto  Jehovah.  Genesis 
xii.  6  to  9. 

The  Canaanite  stood  for  the  most  open  and 
flagrant  opposition  to  Jehovah,  in  degraded  and 
soul-destroying  sin.  And  in  the  land  of  promise, 
to  which  God  had  brought  Abram,  the  Canaanite 
was  present  as  long  as  Abram  lived.  But  Je- 
hovah was  present  also ;  and  at  each  stopping 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    55 

place  on  his  journey  Abram  turned  confidently 
to  Him  and  built  altars  in  His  honour.  In  my 
land  of  promise,  the  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ 
now  and  here  on  earth,  the  Canaanite  is  present 
— and  perhaps  will  be  as  long  as  I  live :  and  I 
shall  be  attacked  by  fierce  efforts  to  drag  me  into 
his  open  revolt  against  Christ,  and  the  degrada- 
tion and  demorahzation  of  the  sin-mastered  life. 
But  God  is  present  also  ;  and  constant,  continu- 
ous altar-erecting,  in  faith  and  prayer  and  service, 
is  my  only  safety.  In  Christ  alone  can  I  do  this, 
and  be  kept. 

CjA  y,  /  pray  thee,  thou  art  my  sister  ;  thai  it  may 
^  be  well  with  me  for  thy  sake.  Genesis  xii. 
lo  to  20. 

When  a  person  is  making,  in  general,  an  hon- 
est effort  to  serve  the  Lord,  he  always  likes  to 
base  his  wrong-doing  on  some  high  plane  of 
moral  obligation.  Abram,  here,  did  not  care 
anything  about  his  own  safety,  but  he  did  want 
to  have  things  go  well  with  him  so  that  he  might 
be  enabled  to  take  care  of  his  wife  !  That  was 
the  only  reason  why  he  suggested  her  lying, — so 
at  least  he  told  himself.  Whatever  the  motive 
was,  sincere  or  insincere,  back  of  it  lay  a  distrust 
of  the  abihty  or  willingness  of  the  God  of  truth 
to  care  for  them  if  they  simply  trusted  Him  and 
told  the  truth.     It  was  probably  this  same  dis- 


56  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

trust  that  impelled  them,  because  of  famine,  to 
leave  the  land  to  which  God  had  brought  them. 
And  this  pitiable  collapse  of  faith  and  honour 
comes  just  after  their  splendid,  hfe-risking  trust 
in  God  and  His  wonderful  care  of  them !  That 
is  the  way  the  Devil  tries  to  strike  into  any  work 
of  God  in  our  lives.  The  only  bright  spot  in  the 
black  incident  is  God's  unwavering  care  of  Abram 
and  Sarai  in  spite  of  their  cowardly  treason.  So 
He  has  held  me,  when  I  have  been  at  my  worst. 
His  continuing  so  to  hold  me  is  my  only  hope  ; 
but  it  is  a  glorious  hope.  "  I  know  Him  whom  I 
have  believed,  and  I  am  persuaded  that  He  is 
able  to  guard  that  which  I  have  committed  unto 
Him"  (2  Tim.  i.  12). 

/J^D  Abram  went  up  out  of  Egjrpt,  he,  and  his 
-^■^   wife,  and  all  that  he  had.     Genesis  xiii.  i,  2. 

That  is  the  way  God  so  often  treats  us  after 
great  sin.  Abram  had  forfeited  everything. 
God  saved  everything  for  him,  added  great 
wealth  to  him,  and  brought  them  all  out  of 
danger  into  safety.  That  is  the  way  God  has 
usually  treated  me  after  my  sin.  Instead  of 
stripping  me  of  all  that  I  have  forfeited,  He  has 
safeguarded  it,  added  richly  to  my  blessings,  and 
brought  me  into  a  safe  place.  Some  one  has 
said,  Who  could  ever  have  conceived  of  such  a 
God  except  God  Himself!     Who  could  ever  ex- 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    S7 

ert  such  love  except  God  Himself!  Who  could 
have  the  faith  to  believe  that  sin-poisoned  hu- 
man nature  could  respond  to  such  love,  except 
God  Himself!  Father,  may  I  respond  to-day, 
by  faith,  and  love,  and  obedience !  And  wilt 
Thou,  through  Christ  Thy  Son  in  me,  let  this 
love  of  Thine  shine  out  through  me  in  my  atti- 
tude toward  all  my  fellows  ! 

/JND  he  went  on  his  journeys  .  .  .  unto  the 
■^^  place  where  his  tent  had  been  at  the  beginning  ; 
.  .  .  unto  the  place  of  the  altar,  which  he  had 
made  there  at  the  first:  and  there  Abram  called  on 
the  name  of  Jehovah.     Genesis  xiii.  3,  4. 

When  we  have  wandered  away  from  God,  and 
are  conscious  of  a  great  break  in  our  fellowship 
with  Him  because  of  our  disobedience  and  faith- 
lessness toward  Him,  there  is  only  one  thing  to 
do :  to  get  back  as  quickly  as  we  can  to  the 
place  where  we  were  at  the  beginning  of  our 
best  life  in  God ;  and  there,  at  the  altar  of  com- 
plete and  unconditional  surrender — the  sacrificed 
life — call  on  God  the  Father  again  and  commit 
everything  once  more  into  His  keeping  in  Christ. 
It  has  been  said  that  "  the  way  of  advance  is  the 
way  of  remembrance  "  ;  and  for  most  of  us,  in 
most  things,  it  is.  What  we  need  is  not  so  much 
new  light  and  guidance,  but  a  going  back  to  the 
old  familiar  light  and  guidance  that  we  have  will- 


58  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

fully  let  become  obscured  or  unreal.  Then^  as 
we  live  true  to  the  best  that  we  have  known  of 
God  aforetime,  He  can  and  will  give  us  gloriously 
new  revelations  of  Himself. 


/I^D  Lot  also,  who  went  with  AbrarriyhadflockSt 
^^  and  herds  and  tents.     Genesis  xiii.  5. 

It  pays  to  keep  in  the  company  of  good  men. 
But  the  pay  is  highest  when  we  keep  in  their 
company  for  the  sake  of  the  highest  pay, — some- 
thing higher  than  flocks,  and  herds,  and  tents  : 
to  learn  the  secret  of  their  fellowship  with  God. 
Lot  did  not  seem  to  want  tka^  kind  of  pay,  and 
he  did  not  get  it. 

cr'HEIR  substance  was  great,  so  that  they  could 
-^     not  dwell  together.     Genesis  xiii.  6,  7. 

The  first  recorded  result  of  great  wealth  was 
that  it  separated  its  owners  from  each  other :  the 
younger  man,  by  it,  lost  out  of  his  life  the  best 
influence  that  he  had  ever  had ;  the  older  man 
lost  the  opportunity  of  keeping  by  him  and  un- 
der his  own  influence,  as  a  friend  and  co-worker, 
the  only  one  of  his  own  blood  and  rehgion  in  all 
that  new  country  and  pagan  land.  Wealth  did 
not  seem  to  start  its  owners  well,  at  the  begin- 
ning, and  it  does  not  seem  to  have  improved 
much  since  then. 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    59 

/F  thou  wilt  take  the  left  hand,  then  I  will  go  to 
the  right ;  or  if  thou  take  the  right  hand,  then  I 
will  go  to  the  left.     Genesis  xiii.  8,  9. 

Abram  insisted  on  choosing  first,  and  it  was 
the  kind  of  "  first  choice  "  that  we  ought  always 
to  make:  he  chose  to  give  the  other  man  first 
choice.  There  is  not  much  room  for  quarrels  or 
misunderstandings  when  we,  in  this  way,  always 
look  out  for  Number  One :  by  making  the  other 
man  Number  One. 


00  Lot  .  .  .  moved  his  tent  as  far  as  Sodom. 
^  Now  the  men  of  Sodom  were  wicked.  Genesis 
xiii.  10  to  13. 

Lot's  taste  of  wealth  had  given  him  the  slant 
that  it  usually  does  give :  desire  for  more  wealth. 
So  he  based  his  choice  simply  on  self:  How  can 
I  get  more  than  I  have  already  ?  Not,  How  can 
I  show  Abram  the  spirit  that  he  has  shown  me ; 
nor.  How  can  I  do  the  most  good  in  this  choice  ? 
No;  simply,  How  can  I  get  most  for  myself? 
The  fact  that  the  answer  pointed  in  the  direction 
of  notorious  wickedness  did  not  change  his 
choice ;  for  riothing  chaiiges  the  choice  when  we 
have  once  begun  to  make  getting  the  chief  purpose 
of  our  lives. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  truth  shines  out  strongly 
here,  in  Abram,  that  wealth,  when  accepted  not 
as  a  possession  but  as  a  stewardship,  need  not 


6o  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

demoralize  life  and  character.  Abram,  of  great 
wealth,  was  more  interested  in  giving  and  serving 
than  in  getting.  So  he  could,  as  he  did,  use  his 
wealth  to  God's  glory.  Not  money,  but  the  love 
of  money  y  is  the  root  of  every  kind  of  evil.  Abram 
had  money  ;  Lot  had  the  love  of  money. 

But  about  one  man  in  ten  thousand  can  have 
much  money  without  yielding  to  the  love  of  it. 
If  God  has  not  sent  us  this  perilous  stewardship 
unsought,  we  had  better  not  take  the  awful  risk 
of  seeking  it. 

/JND  Jehovah  said  unto  Abram,  .  .  .  All 
■^^  the  land  which  thou  seest,  to  thee  I  will  give  it, 
and  to  thy  seed  forever.     Genesis  xiii.  14  to  18. 

This  promise  makes  one  think  of  Eph.  iii.  20, 
•'  exceeding  abundantly  above  all  that  we  ask  or 
think,  according  to  the  power  that  worketh  in 
us."  Abram  had  not  asked  God  for  this  bless- 
ing. It  was  God's  unsought  blessing  for  Abram. 
The  blessings  that  God  sends  us  unsought  are  al- 
ways better  than  those  that  we  ask  Him  for.  We 
cannot  "ask  or  think"  up  to  the  "exceeding 
abundantly "  of  His  love.  We  v/ould  not  dare 
to. 

The  whole  story  of  Abram,  so  far,  has  been 
the  story  of  God's  unsolicited  leading  of  him  on, 
step  by  step,  into  an  undreamed  of  enrichment 
of  life.     And  that  is  the  story  of  what  God  is 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    6l 

trying  to  do  for  me.     Shall  I  let  Him,  as  Abram 
did? 


yiND  they  took  Lot,  .  .  .  and  his  ^oods,  and 
-^-^  departed.     Genesis  xiv.  i  to  12. 

Lot  now  begins  to  pay  the  price  of  having 
chosen  what  he  thought  was  the  best  he  could 
get  for  himself.  It  was  too  high  a  price.  No 
matter  what  we  get  when  we  set  out  to  get  all 
we  can  for  ourselves,  the  price  we  pay  for  it  is 
always  too  high. 

yJND  ivhen  Abram  heard  that  his  brother  was 
-"  taken  captive,  he  led  forth  his  trained  men  born 
in  his  house,  three  hundred  and  eighteen,  and  pursued 
as  far  as  Dan.     Genesis  xiv.  13,  14. 

Notice  that  godliness  and  righteousness  are 
preeminently  sensible  and  practical.  This  man 
of  God  had  several  hundred  trained  men,  of  his 
own  household,  brought  up  under  his  personal 
supervision,  ready  for  instant  action  in  any  time 
of  need.  When  the  emergency  came,  he  did  not 
sit  down  and  merely  pray  for  deliverance, — 
though  doubtless  he  prayed ;  he  also  sprang  into 
action  with  the  decision  and  resourcefulness  that 
that  man  alone  can  show  who  has  habitually  been 
making  ready  for  any  call.  T/iat  is  what  real 
godliness  does  for  a  man.  Lot,  the  self-seeking 
dweller  in  a  place  of  sin,  had  no  such  prepared- 


62  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

ness  for  trouble ;  when  the  blow  fell,  he  had  to 
depend  upon  his  pious  uncle. 

nLESSED  be  God  Most  High,  mho  hath  deliv- 
•^  ered  thine  enemies  into  thy  hand.  Genesis  xiv. 
15  to  20. 

The  first  record  of  a  victory  in  battle  by  one 
of  God's  followers  contains  the  specific  statement 
that  God  won  the  victory.  So  it  is  always : 
never  a  victory  in  a  righteous  cause  but  that  it 
was  God,  and  God  only,  who  won  it  for  us. 
Only  as  we  forget  this  are  we  in  danger. 

T  WILL  not  take  a  thread  nor  a  shoe-latchet, 
-*     Genesis  xiv.  21  to  24. 

When  a  man  shuts  out  from  his  life  and  pur- 
poses, and  even  from  his  tolerated  desires,  the 
spirit  of  getting,  as  we  have  seen  was  true  of 
Abram,  it  will  constantly  show  itself  in  his  life 
and  actions  and  decisions,  to  the  surprise  of 
others.  He  will  never  consent  to  a  gain  for  him- 
self, if  there  is  a  higher  and  better  way.  He  is 
afraid  of  mere  personal  gain,  as  he  sees  its  effects 
upon  the  life  and  character  of  people  around 
him.  Service  interests  him  much  more  than 
possessions. 

TpEAR  not,  Abram:  I  am  thy  shield,  and  thy  ex- 
■^     ceeding  great  reward.     Genesis  xv.  i. 

Surely  these  thoughts  ought  to  be  enough  to 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    63 

carry  us  through  any  day  of  stress,  or  temptation, 
or  need.  God  is  sufficient  to  protect  us  from  any 
sort  of  impending  harm  or  danger.  And  God 
never  asks  us  to  work  for  Him  without  pay. 
Therein  He  differs  from  the  Devil,  who  is  so 
much  harder  a  taskmaster,  and  who  never  pays 
according  to  his  promises.  No  hardship  that  God 
asks  us  to  undergo  in  His  service  begins  to  equal 
the  greatness  of  the  exceeding  great  reward  that 
follows.  I  have  never  been  so  supremely  happy 
as  when  I  have  been  honestly  and  faithfully 
striving  to  do  God's  will  to  the  uttermost.  I 
want,  and  I  can  conceive  of,  no  rewards  that  can 
approach  those  I  have  tasted  from  time  to  time, 
when  I  let  Him  send  them,  in  the  doing  of  His  will. 

y/ND  he  brought  him  forth  abroad,  and  said, 
■^■^  Look  now  toward  heaven,  and  number  the 
stars,  if  thou  be  able  to  number  them :  and  he  said 
unto  him,  So  shall  thy  seed  be.     Genesis  xv.  2  to  5. 

When  God  sets  out  to  do  a  thing  for  us,  He 
does  it  in  a  prodigality  of  love-prompted  abun- 
dance that  fairly  staggers  one  who  reckons  things 
by  the  coldly  calculating  standards  of  earth. 
Again  this  brings  back  Eph.  iii.  20;  it  also  re- 
minds us  of  Luke  vi.  38  and  Mai.  iii.  10. 


J 


ND  he  believed  in  Jehovah ;  and  he  reckoned  it 
to  him  for  righteousness.     Genesis  xv.  6. 
There  is  no  higher  form  or  evidence  of  right- 


64  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

eousness,  nothing  that  rejoices  the  great  loving 
heart  of  our  heavenly  Father  more  than  just 
trusting  Him, — completely,  sweepingly,  un- 
questioningly.  That  is  the  behef  that  is  always 
reckoned  to  any  one  for  righteousness.  Three 
times  in  the  New  Testament  this  passage  is 
quoted,  it  is  so  significant  (Rom.  iv.  3  ;  Gal.  iii.  6 ; 
Jas.  ii.  23). 

Nothing  so  rejoices  an  earthly  parent  as  the 
unquestioning  trust  of  a  child  when  there  is  no 
reason  to  trust  except  the  child's  unwavering, 
unshakeable  confidence  in  the  parent.  So  it  is 
with  God.  Such  belief  is  never  merely  passive. 
It  shows  itself  in  our  instant  doing  of  anything 
and  everything  that  God  asks,  as  in  Abram's 
case  later  (xxii.  i  to  20).  But  even  while  it  is 
called  upon  to  do  nothing  but  beheve,  it  has  in 
it  all  the  elements  and  requirements  of  right- 
eousness. How  simple  this  makes  our  religion, 
if  we  will  but  have  it  so  ! 

T  AM  Jehovah  that  brought  thee  out  of  Ur  of  the 
-*  Chaldees,  to  give  thee  this  land  to  inherit  it. 
Genesis  xv.  7. 

God  never  asks  us  to  believe  in  Him  in  an 
unreasoning  or  unreasonable  way.  When  He 
asks  us  to  accept  His  word  that  He  w^ill  do  for 
us  something  that  seems  at  the  time  wholly  im- 
possible. He  quietly  reminds  us  of  what  He  has 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    65 

already  done  for  us,  as  reason  for  our  continued 
belief  in  Him.  God's  great  work  for  us  in  the 
past  is  the  collateral  He  offers  when  He  asks  us 
to  accept  His  promissory  notes  for  a  future  pay- 
ment which  He  pledges  Himself  to  make.  He 
may  make  a  heavy  draft  upon  our  faith,  but — 
"  I  am  Jehovah  that  brought  thee  out  of  Ur  of 
the  Chaldees." 

The  collateral  that  God  has  already  deposited 
with  each  of  us,  in  the  wonderful  things  He  has 
done  for  us,  is  more  than  enough  to  justify  our 
faith  to  the  uttermost.  "  I  am  Jehovah  "  ;  that 
is  enough.  But  in  addition  to  Himself,  He  has 
given  us  His  Son  in  covenant-evidence  of  His 
love  and  purpose  for  us.  Let  me  accept  in 
glad  confidence  and  eagerness  everything  He 
asks  me  to  beheve  of  Him,  as  promised  to  me 
by  Him. 

TI^ HEREBY  shall  I  knoiv  that  I  shall  inherit  it ) 
'^'^  .  .  .  Take  me  a  heifer  .  .  .  And 
the  birds  of  prey  came  down,  .  .  .  and  Abram 
drove  them  away.     Genesis  xv.  8  to  11. 

When  God  promises  us  a  great  blessing,  and 
we  ask  how  we  may  know  that  we  shall  have  it, 
the  answer  is  always  the  same :  Bj/  your  own 
sacrifice  to  Me.  God  cannot  fulfill  His  richest 
blessings  to  any  of  us  until  we  have  offered  up  to 
Him,  in   utter  completeness  of  surrender,  our- 


66  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

selves.  Then  He  can  do  glorious  things  for  and 
with  our  lives. 

And  then,  also,  "  the  birds  of  prey  "  attack  a 
life  as  never  before.  The  Devil  does  not  like  to 
see  any  life  really  sacrificed  to  God,  for  he  knows 
how  mightily  God  will  use  that  life  to  defeat  the 
works  of  darkness.  So  the  birds  of  prey  come 
down.  We  must  expect  to  be  attacked  and 
tempted  more  fiercely  and  continuously  after  our 
life  has  been  wholly  surrendere'd  to  God  than  we 
ever  were  before. 

But  there  is  a  still  deeper,  better  meaning  in 
this  pledge  of  fulfillment  that  God  showed 
Abram.  Every  Old  Testament  sacrifice  was  a 
foregleam  and  type  of  the  Sacrifice  which  was  to 
fulfill  all  these  for  all  time :  that  of  our  Christ, 
the  Son  of  God.  No  man's  sacrifice  without  the 
life-giving  sacrifice  of  Christ  could  avail  any- 
thing. So  Christ's  sacrifice  for  us,  which  is  God's 
offering  for  us,  is  our  final  and  irresistible  pledge 
of  the  fulfillment  of  God's  promises  to  us. 

jy^NOW  of  a  surety  that  thy  seed  shall  be 
-^^  sojourners  in  a  land  that  is  not  theirs  /  .  .  . 
they  shall  afflict  them  four  hundred  years ;  .  .  . 
and  afterward  shall  they  come  out  with  great  sub- 
stance.    Genesis  xv.  12  to  14. 

An  assured  part  of  God's  pledged  blessing  to 
us  is  delay  and  suffering.     A  delay  in  Abram's 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    6/ 

own  lifetime  that  seemed  to  put  God's  pledge 
beyond  fulfillment  was  followed  by  seemingly 
unendurable  delay  in  the  hfe  of  Abram's  de- 
scendants. But  it  was  only  delay :  they  came 
"  out  with  great  substance."  The  pledge  was 
redeemed. 

God  is  going  to  test  me  with  delays :  that  I 
know.  And  with  the  delays  will  come  suffering. 
But  through  it  all  stands  God's  pledge :  His 
New  Covenant  with  me  in  Christ,  and  His 
inviolable  promise  of  every  lesser  blessing  that  I 
need.  The  delay  and  the  suffering  are  part  of 
the  promised  blessing;  let  me  praise  Him  for 
them  to-day ;  and  let  me  wait  on  the  Lord  and 
be  of  good  courage ;  He  will  strengthen  my 
heart. 

DEHOLD,  a  smoking  furnace,  and  a  flaming 
■^  torch  that  passed  between  these  pieces.  In  that 
day  Jehovah  made  a  covenant  ivith  Abram.     Genesis 

XV.    15  to  21. 

So  God  accepted  the  sacrifice  that  Abram,  at 
God's  direction,  was  offering  Him ;  but  not  until 
God  had  touched  it  with  His  own  purifying  fire. 
Then  He  confirmed  and  renewed  His  covenant 
with  Abram. 

That  is  just  what  I  must  expect  God  to  do  with 
all  that  I  offer  Him,  especially  with  my  life  itself. 
It  may  be  offered  up  in  sacrifice  to  God  as  com- 


68  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

pletely  and  sincerely  as  I  know  how,  in  sacrifice 
of  life  and  self  unto  Him,  as  He  has  directed ;  yet 
it  cannot  be  even  acceptable  to  Him  until  it  has 
been  burned  out  with  the  purifying  heat  of  His 
refining  fire.  It  must  not  surprise  me  or  disturb 
me  when  the  fire  of  suffering  and  testing  begins 
to  burn  deep.  Let  me  rather  rejoice  in  it  as  I 
recognize  in  it  God's  accepting  of  my  wholly  un- 
worthy offering,  and  let  me  wait  in  confidence 
and  quietness  for  His  renewing  and  fulfiUing  of 
His  pledges  to  me. 

jjND  Saraiy  Abram's  wife,  took  Hagar  the 
-"  Egyptian,  her  handmaid,  after  Abram  had 
dwelt  ten  years  in  the  land  of  Canaan,  and  gave  her 
to  Abram  her  husband  to  be  his  wife.  Genesis  xvi. 
I  to  6. 

See  the  taint  of  Egypt  cropping  out  again ! 
A  short  cut  to  the  accomplishment  of  God's 
plans, — shorter  than  He  intends, — always  means 
a  long  road  of  wearisome  misery  and  regret. 
Abram  and  Sarai  had  waited  ten  years  for  the 
child  on  whom  God's  promise  depended,  and  it 
had  not  come.  So  they  took  matters  into  their 
own  hands,  in  a  way  that  they  knew  was  not  His 
way. 

The  tragedy  of  it  is  that  this  record  immedi- 
ately follows  the  record  of  Abram's  splendid  un- 
selfishness (xiv),  then  his  historic  and  undaunted 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    69 

faith,  and  God's  sweeping,  miraculous  assurance 
and  new  covenant  (xv).  After  these  heights  of 
heaven  itself,  slump  goes  everything  into  the 
mushy,  swampy  lowlands  of  devil-directed  dis- 
trust: wedlock  dishonoured,  God  dishonoured, 
Abram  weakly  a  partner  to  the  thing,  Sarai 
mocked,  the  servant  abused  and  driven  away. 
What  an  awful  price  we  pay  when  we  try  to  im- 
prove upon  God's  plain  will  for  us !  He  says, 
Let  Me  bless  you  beyond  all  reckoning.  We 
say,  I'll  attend  to  the  blessing  in  a  better  way : 
and  then  we  eat  Dead  Sea  fruit. 

nETURN  to  thy  mistress^  and  submit  thyself 
•^*-  under  her  hands.  .  .  .  I  will  greatly 
multiply  thy  seed.  .  .  .  Thou  art  a  God  that 
seeth.     Genesis  xvi.  7  to  16. 

Go  straight  back  into  the  worst  hardship  you 
have  ever  known  ;  that  was  God's  loving  message 
to  the  discouraged,  bewildered  fugitive.  But 
God  knew  that  in  that  way  He  could  best  care 
for  her  and  her  unborn  child. 

His  next  word  was  that  of  the  richest  blessing 
that  any  Oriental  man  or  woman  could  think  of: 
many  descendants.  No  wonder  the  heart-broken, 
hunted  woman  cried  out  in  thanksgiving,  **  Thou 
art  a  God  that  seeth." 

Dr.  Aked  has  done  us  all  a  service  in  pointing 
out  that  this  verse  (in  the  A.  V.,  "  Thou  God 


70  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

seest  me")  has  been  slandered  in  its  misuse  for 
many  years.  We  commonly  quote  it  as  mean- 
ing that  God  always  has  His  eye  on  us — as  a  de- 
tective or  policeman  ;  that  we  cannot  get  beyond 
His  sight  in  any  wrong  thing  we  do.  That  is 
completely  wrenching  it  out  of  its  meaning. 
Hagar's  cry  was  one  of  thanksgiving,  joy,  grati- 
tude. Even  out  here  in  the  wilderness,  where 
she  had  not  looked  unto  Him  for  help  in  her  ex- 
tremity, His  eye  in  ceaseless,  watchful  love  was 
upon  her,  and  He  would  never  abandon  her.  She 
never  could  get  beyond  God's  love.  Nor  can 
we.  Our  God  is  a  God  of  seeing;  He  sees  and 
meets  our  need  even  when  He  may  seem  to  have 
forgotten  all  about  us. 

T  AM  God  Almightf ;  walk  before  me,  and  be  thou 
-^  perfect.  And  I  will  make  my  covenant  between 
me  and  thee,  and  will  multiply  thee  exceedingly. 
And  Abram  fell  on  his  face :  and  God  talked  with 
him.     Genesis  xvii.  i  to  3. 

Here  is  the  whole  priceless  privilege  of  fellow- 
ship in  prayer  and  Hfe  with  God,  and  its  results. 
It  is  for  me  exactly  as  it  was  with  Abram.  I  am 
to  walk  before  God  to-day,  in  completeness :  I 
am  to  live  and  act  conscious  of  the  fact  that  I  am 
in  His  presence  all  the  day  long ;  therefore  I  am 
to  do  His  will  completely, — to  the  limit  of  my 
light,  not  part  way.     That  is  the  meaning  of 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    7 1 

"  perfect "  ;  not  sinless  perfection,  for  God  does 
not  enjoin  the  impossible.  Then  God  pledges 
Himself  to  multiply  me  spiritually  in  the  lives  of 
others,  so  that  the  life  of  Christ  in  me  may  be 
communicated  to  and  reproduced  in  others  wher- 
ever I  go. 

And  God  will  talk  with  me,  freely  and  lov- 
ingly and  revealingly,  if  I  will  give  Him  a  real 
opportunity  to  do  so,  by  going  apart  by  myself, 
alone  with  Him,  and  literally  falling  on  my  face 
before  Him.  Do  we  give  God  a  chance  to  talk 
with  us  as  He  longs  to  ? 

Jl/fy  covenant  is  with  thee.  .  .  .  Neither  shall 
-^^-^  thy  name  any  more  he  called.  Abram,  but  thy 
name  shall  be  Abraham.     Genesis  xvii.  4  to  8. 

All  that  any  one  of  us  can  ask  or  need  as  we 
enter  upon  the  day's  march,  with  its  dangers  and 
opportunities  ahead,  is  this  definite  pledge  of 
God's  :  My  covenant  is  with  thee.  And  we  have 
His  covenant  in  better,  richer  form  than  Abram 
had  it, — his  New  Covenant  in  Jesus  Christ.  That 
New  Covenant,  which  God  in  Christ  pledges  Him- 
self to  keep  with  us,  includes  such  agreements  as 
these :  "  He  that  abideth  in  Me,  and  I  in  him, 
the  same  beareth  much  fruit  "  ;  "  If  ye  abide  in 
Me,  and  My  words  abide  in  you,  ask  whatsoever 
ye  will,  and  it  shall  be  done  unto  you  " ;  "  Lo,  I 
am  with  you  always,  even  unto  the  end  of  the 


^2  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

world " ;    "I    can   do   all   things   in    Him   that 
strengtheneth  me." 

Moreover,  our  names,  like  Abram's  name,  are 
changed  as  the  result  of  the  covenant.  "  No 
longer,"  says  our  Lord  to  us,  "  do  I  call  you 
servants  ;  .  .  .  but  I  have  called  you  friends  " 
(John  XV.  15);  and,  "If  any  man  is  in  Christ, 
there  is  a  new  creation  "  (2  Cor.  v.  17  margin). 
One's  name,  which  in  the  East  means  his  inner- 
most personality,  is  wholly  changed ;  he  is  born 
anew.  That  is  the  covenant  in  which  God 
pledges  Himself  to  me  to-day. 

/JNI^  God  said  unto  Abraham,  And  as  for  theCy 
-"  thou  shall  keep  my  covenant,  thou,  and  thy 
seed  after  thee  throughout  their  generations.  .  .  . 
As  for  Sarai  thy  wife,  thou  shalt  not  call  her  name 
Sarai,  but  Sarah  shall  her  name  be.  And  I  will 
bless  her.     Genesis  xvii.  9  to  16. 

God  never  asks  us  to  keep  His  best  blessings 
to  ourselves.  They  are  always  of  such  a  sort 
that  we  want  to  share  them ;  and  we  always  can 
share  them,  and  must  share  them  if  we  are  to 
keep  them.  God's  covenant  with  Abraham, 
with  all  the  blessings  that  it  carried  of  fellowship 
and  the  special  favour  and  protection  of  God, 
was  for  Abraham's  descendants  throughout  gen- 
erations to  come. 

Moreover,  the  one  dearest  to  him  on  earth 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    73 

was  to  have  her  name  changed,  as  his  had  been, 
and  to  share  in  the  blessing.  All  that  Christ 
means  to  us,  as  God's  covenant  and  richest 
blessing  to  us,  those  who  are  dearest  to  us  can 
have  also.  If  our  name  has  been  changed,  if  in 
Christ  there  has  been  in  us  a  new  creation,  so  it 
can  be  for  those  dearest  to  us.  We  are  Christ's 
key  to  their  lives  for  Christ.  If  they  do  not 
enter  into  our  richest  blessings,  the  fault  and 
failure  are  ours.  God  would  have  us  in  no 
doubt  as  to  this.  Love,  and  faith,  and  prayer, 
and  patience,  and  Christ  will  accomplish  it. 

/f^D  Abraham  said  unto  God,  O  that  Ishmael 
-^^  might  live  before  thee!  And  God  said,  Nay, 
but  Sarah  thy  wife  shall  bear  thee  a  son.  Genesis 
xvii.  17  to  21. 

Abraham  did  not  dare  to  ask  God  outright  for 
the  direct  keeping  of  His  promise  in  the  best 
way  that  could  be  thought  of,  but  timidly  sug- 
gested that  He  now  do  the  best  that  human 
possibilities  offered.  And  God,  instead  of  deny- 
ing him  the  blessing  that  he  was  forfeiting  by 
his  unbelief,  holds  true  to  His  promise  and  does 
the  thing  that  Abraham  knew  was  best  but 
thought  impossible. 

There  are  "  bests  "  in  our  own  life  and  in  the 
lives  of  those  dear  to  us,  which  long  ago  were 
our   ideals,  and  which  we  know  were  and  are 


74  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

God's  ideals  for  us  and  for  them,  but  which  we 
have  given  up  as  no  longer  possible.  And  we 
are  weakly  and  timidly  asking  God  for  some 
second-best  blessing  instead,  as  though  that  were 
the  best  He  could  now  do.  He  wants  us  to 
claim  now,  for  ourselves  and  for  others,  the  best 
that  we  have  ever  dared  to  think  of,  and  then 
ask  Him  confidently  to  do  better  than  that 
for  us.  He  will.  Exceeding  abundantly  above 
all  that  we  ask  or  think,  according  to  the 
Power  that  worketh  in  us — that  is  our  authoriza- 
tion. 

TN  the  selfsame  day,  as  God  had  said  unto  him, 
-*     Genesis  xvii.  22  to  27. 

Instant  obedience  is  the  only  kind  of  obedience 
there  is;  delayed  obedience  is  disobedience. 
Every  time  God  calls  us  to  any  duty,  He  is 
offering  to  make  a  covenant  with  us ;  doing  the 
duty  is  our  part,  and  He  will  do  His  part  in 
special  blessing.  The  only  way  we  can  obey  is 
by  obeying  in  the  selfsame  day,  as  Abraham 
did.  To  be  sure,  we  often  postpone  a  duty  and 
then  do  it  as  fully  as  we  can  later  on.  It  is 
better  to  do  this  than  not  to  do  it  at  all.  But  it 
is  then,  at  the  best,  only  a  crippled,  disfigured, 
half-way  sort  of  duty-doing;  and  a  postponed  duty 
never  can  bring  the  full  blessing  that  God  in- 
tended, and  that  it  would  have  brought  if  done  at 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    75 

the  earliest  possible  mo^nent.  It  is  a  pity  to  rob 
ourselves,  along  with  robbing  God  and  others,  by 
procrastination.  "  In  the  selfsame  day "  is  the 
Genesis  way  of  saying,  "  Do  it  now." 

/f^D  Jehovah  appeared  unto  him ;  .  .  .  and 
-^^  he  lifted  up  his  eyes  and  looked^  and,  to,  three 
men  stood  over  against  him  ;  and  when  he  saw  them, 
he  ran  to  meet  them.     Genesis  xviii.  i  to  8. 

Every  visitor  who  comes  into  my  life  to-day 
is  an  appearance  of  Jehovah  unto  me.  And 
"visitor"  may  mean  interruption.  Any  and 
every  interruption  in  my  life,  as  brought  into  it 
by  other  persons  in  ways  not  of  my  seeking  nor 
of  my  control,  is  a  visitor  sent  or  permitted  of 
God.  Shall  I  meet  these,  His  appearances,  as 
Abraham  did :  run  to  meet  them  in  eagerness 
for  the  opportunity  that  they  offer  ?  Not  unless 
I  do  can  I  get  the  blessing  which  God  is  trying 
to  send  by  them. 

This  is  as  beautiful  a  picture  of  true  Oriental 
hospitality  as  one  is  ever  likely  to  find  in  all 
literature.  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose 
Abraham  knew  that  these  men  were  angels  or 
messengers  of  God, — except  that  to  an  Oriental 
every  guest  and  stranger  is  such.  Abraham 
simply  leaped  forward  to  place  himself  and  all 
his  resources  at  the  service  of  the  strangers 
whom   he  at  once  made  his  guests.     And  he 


76  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

entertained  angels  unawares.  So  may  we,  if  we 
will  receive  eagerly,  as  from  God,  every  one  who 
crosses  our  path  in  Hfe.  The  best  meal  we  can 
offer  them  is  the  bread  of  hfe.  This  is  a  call  to 
daily  personal  evangelism,  as  well  as  to  the 
recognizing  of  interruptions  as  God's  visits  and 
tests. 

TS  anything  too  hard  for  Jehovah  I    Genesis  xviii. 
•^     9  to  15. 

Here  is  God's  loving  challenge  to  you  and  to 
me  to-day.  He  wants  us  to  think  of  the  deepest, 
highest,  worthiest  desire  and  longing  of  our 
hearts,  something  which  perhaps  was  once  our 
ideal  for  ourselves  or  for  some  one  dear  to  us, 
yet  which  has  been  so  long  unfulfilled  that  we 
have  looked  upon  it  as  only  a  lost  ideal,  that 
which  might  have  been  but  now  cannot  be,  and 
so  have  given  up  hope  of  seeing  it  realized  in 
this  life.  That  thing,  if  it  is  in  line  with  what 
we  know  to  be  His  expressed  will  (as  a  son  to 
Abraham  and  Sarah  was),  God  intends  to  do  for 
us,  even  if  we  know  that  it  is  of  such  utter  im- 
possibility that  we  only  laugh  at  the  absurdity 
of  any  one's  supposing  it  could  ever  now  come 
to  pass.  That  thing  God  intends  to  do  for  us, 
if  we  will  let  Him. 

"  Is  anything  too  hard  for  Jehovah  ?  "  Not 
when  we  believe  in  Him  enough  to  go  forward 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    77 

and  do  His  will,  and  let  Him  do  the  impossible 
for  us.  Even  Abraham  and  Sarah  could  have 
blocked  God's  plan  if  they  had  continued  to  dis- 
believe in  Him.  The  only  thing  too  hard  for 
Jehovah  is  deliberate,  continued  disbelief  in  His 
love  and  power  and  our  final  rejection  of  His 
plans  for  us.  If  our  lost  ideal  still  fails  to  be 
realized,  it  will  be  not  because  of  our  past  fail- 
ure, but  because  of  our  continued,  deliberate 
refusal  to  let  God  send  it  to  us.  Nothing  is 
too  hard  for  Jehovah  to  do  for  them  that  trust 
Him. 

TpOR  I  have  known  him,  to  the  end  that  he  may 
■^  command  his  children  and  his  household  after 
him,  that  they  may  keep  the  way  of  Jehovah.  Gen- 
esis xviii.  i6  to  19. 

That  is  why  God  '*  knows  "  any  of  us  on  earth  : 
to  the  end  that  others  through  us  may  know 
Him  and  keep  His  way.  Is  it  not  His  chief 
reason  for  keeping  me  alive  to-day  ?  Some  day 
we  shall  know  even  as  we  are  known ;  but  until 
then  it  is  solely  God's  love  and  goodness  in 
knowing  us  that  enables  us  to  hve  and  to  serve. 
Let  me  make  sure  that  I  understand  this,  His 
purpose  in  knowing  and  keeping  me,  and  that  I 
do  not  let  other  things,  of  infinitely  less  impor- 
tance, come  between  me  and  my  commission. 
Father,  may  Thy  Son,  my  Saviour  and  Master, 


7^  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

and  Thy  Holy  Spirit,  my  Friend  and  Strength- 
ener,  use  me  to-day  as  the  unobstructing  com- 
municator of  Thyself  to  the  lives  of  all  whom  I 
meet !  May  many  others,  through  Thyself  work- 
ing in  me,  keep  Thy  way. 

T  WILL  go  down  now,  and  see  whether  the/  have 
-*  done  altogether  according  to  the  cry  of  it,  which 
is  come  unto  me.     Genesis  xviii.  20,  21. 

God  is  very,  very  patient,  and  very,  very  fair. 
This  entirely  human  way  of  describing  His  thor- 
ough investigation  of  the  exact  condition  of  a 
place  before  taking  any  action  is  simply  a  sug- 
gestion of  how  long  He  waits,  how  patiently  He 
works,  how  thoroughly  He  satisfies  Himself  that 
all  has  been  done  that  could  be  done,  before  He 
ever,  in  any  life,  lets  the  full  result  of  sin  work 
out  its  own  end :  death.  Had  He  not  treated 
you  and  me  in  this  same  patient,  loving  way,  we 
should  have  been  blotted  out  by  our  own  sins 
long  ago.  Even  now  God  is  waiting,  and  urging 
a  change  in  the  lives  of  many  who  have  really 
given  themselves  to  Christ  and  taken  Him  as 
their  Saviour,  but  who  are  holding  on  to  sins 
that  are  deadly — sins  of  pride  or  self-will,  or 
others,  preventing  full  surrender  and  the  master- 
ing, never-interrupted,  indwelHng  presence  of 
Christ  in  their  lives.  He  will  not  strike  down 
or  cut  off  until  we  make  Him.     He  waits  and 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    79 

hopes  so  eagerly.  May  we  not  disappoint  Him  ! 
May  we  never  force  Him  to  realize,  as  He  had 
to  about  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  that  His  worst 
fears  about  us  were  true  ! 

J  HA  VE  taken  upon  me  to  speak  unto  the  Lord, 
-*  mho  am  but  dust  and  ashes.  Genesis  xviii. 
22  to  i^. 

God  loves  a  daring  prayer.  We  know  it,  be- 
cause Christian  history  is  filled  with  the  evidences 
of  it :  of  God's  eager,  lavish  answers  to  the 
prayers  of  the  George  M tillers,  the  Hudson  Tay- 
lors, the  new-born  Korean  Church,  and  the  tens 
of  thousands  who  have  dared  to  stand  before 
Jehovah  and  challenge  Him  to  a  great  test 
of  His  love  and  power.  We  call  it  a  "  great " 
test;  He  does  not;  for  has  any  man  ever 
put  any  strain  upon  God's  omnipotence  and  all- 
love? 

It  has  been  pointed  out  that  Abraham,  and  not 
God,  stopped  first,  in  this  prayer ;  and  it  is  so. 
God  gave  no  evidence  of  the  "  anger"  that  Abra- 
ham seemed  to  fear,  nor  of  exhaustion  or  im- 
patience. Perhaps  Abraham  might  have  gone 
farther,  and  with  Lot  alone — and  God — have 
saved  Sodom,  physically  and  spiritually.  We 
do  not  know ;  but  we  do  know  that  we  can  never 
dare  too  much  in  asking  God  for  blessings  that 
are  in  the  line  of  His  will. 


80  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

/f  ND  Lot  sat  in  the  gate  of  Sodom  :  .  .  . 
-"  and  he  said,  Behold  now,  my  lords,  turn  aside, 
I  pray  you,  into  your  servant's  house.  Genesis 
xix.  I  to  3. 

A  gleam  of  shining  white  light  cuts  through 
the  awful  blackness  of  this  Sodom  picture.  By 
his  own  choice,  impelled  by  personal  greed,  Lot 
had  been  living  now  for  years  in  a  place  of  sin. 
Yet  when  these  two  strangers  came,  he  treated 
them  according  to  the  same  high  standards  of 
the  God-given  hospitality  that  Abraham,  with 
whom  he  had  once  hved,  had  shown  them  :  and 
he  was  the  only  man  in  Sodom  who  would  do 
this.  Abraham's  influence  for  good  endured 
above  all  the  degrading  influences  in  which  Lot 
lived,  and  in  the  end  saved  Lot  and  his  family. 
There  is  the  light-gleam.  It  is  evidently  there 
because  Abraham  walked  with  God.  May  I 
walk  with  God  so  faithfully  that  He  can,  through 
me,  reach  others  in  this  enduring  way  1 

/1RISE,  ,  .  .  lest  thou  he  consumed  in  the 
-^  iniquity  of  the  city.  But  he  lingered ;  and  the 
men  laid  hold  upon  his  hand ;  .  .  .  Jehovah  be- 
ing merciful  unto  him :  and  they  brought  him  forth. 
Genesis  xix.  12  to  16. 

We  have  never  abandoned  any  sin  of  our  own 
accord,  and  we  never  shall.  It  is  only  because 
God  Himself,  in  Christ  His  Son,  enters  forcibly 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    8 1 

into  our  life,  and  lays  hold  upon  us,  and  leads  us 
out  of  sin,  that  we  ever  give  it  up.  You  and  I 
know  how  many  times  we  have  lingered,  when 
He  was  entreating  us,  "  Arise,  lest  thou  be  con- 
sumed in  this  iniquity." 

Notice  that  the  thing  in  which  Lot  was  in 
danger  of  destruction  was  the  iniquity  itself;  the 
margin  gives,  "  Or,  punishment,"  but  the  punish- 
ment is  only  a  result  or  ending  of  the  sin  ;  the 
sin  itself  is  the  thing  that  destroys  and  that  is 
most  to  be  feared.  Yet  we  have  hngered,  and 
yet  God  has  led  us  forth,  and  saved  us  from  the 
awful  destruction  in  which  we  were  choosing  to 
remain.  Let  us  never  forget  this.  And  let  us 
bless  His  holy  name  for  His  merciful  insistence 
upon  our  salvation,  by  the  gift  of  Himself  in  His 
Son. 


77SCAPE  for  thy  life  ;  escape  to  the  mountain. 
-^— '  .  .  .  And  Lot  said  unto  them,  Oh,  not  so, 
my  Lord :  .  .  .  I  cannot  escape  to  the  moun- 
tain ;  .  .  .  behold  now,  this  city  is  near  to  flee 
unto,  and  it  is  a  little  one  :  Oh,  let  me  escape  thither 
(is  it  not  a  little  one ))  .  .  .  Therefore  the  name 
of  the  city  was  called  Zoar  Ithat  is  Little'].  Genesis 
xix.  17  to  22. 

And,  therefore,  the  name  of  Lot  might  well 
have  been  called  Little,  also.  We  do  not  know 
much  more  about  Lot ;  one  of  the  only  remain- 


82  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

ing  two  incidents  of  his  life  that  are  recorded  is 
one  of  drunken  degradation.  The  point  is,  that 
when  God  was  directing  his  Hfe  in  order  to  save 
him,  and  told  him  what  He,  God,  believed  was 
the  best  way  to  act.  Lot  held  back  in  distrust 
and  suggested  an  improvement  upon  God's  plan. 
God  said,  "  This  is  your  way  of  safety."  Lot 
said,  "  I  think  you  must  be  mistaken."  God 
said,  "  The  plain  is  no  place  for  you ;  get  up  into 
the  heights  of  the  mountain."  Lot  said,  "  I 
would  rather  go  to  Littleness  on  the  plain." 
And  God  let  him  go.  God's  choice  for  Lot  was 
a  mountain  height;  Lot's  improvement  upon 
God's  choice  was  a  place  on  a  lower  level  called 
Little.  How  often  we  have  chosen  Littleness  as 
an  improved  substitute  for  the  mountain  top  to 
which  God  was  calling  us  !  Father,  may  I  take 
Thy  choices  for  me  unquestioningly  and  eagerly, 
and  live  on  the  height  which  is  my  only  place  of 
safety ! 

jJND  he  overthrew  those  cities,  and  all  the  Plain, 
-^  and  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  cities,  and  that 
which  grew  upon  the  ground.     Genesis  xix.  23  to  28. 

In  one  of  two  ways,  destruction  must  always 
be  the  end  of  every  sin.  Either  Christ  must 
destroy  the  sin  in  our  lives,  or  the  sin  must  des- 
troy our  lives.  We  may  have  the  first  if  we 
will ;  we  must  have  the  second,  whether  we  will 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     83 

or  not,  if  we  do  not  take  the  first.  And  God's 
ordering  that  sin  persisted  in  must  destroy  the 
sinner,  is  only  another  evidence  of  God's  love. 
It  is  far  more  merciful  than  that  the  sinner 
should  continue  unhindered  to  go  on  forever  in 
the  awful  degradation  and  misery  of  sin.  But 
Christ's  destruction  of  sin  is  God's  plan  for  us. 
Are  we  letting  Christ  do  this  ?  Not  merely  save 
us  hereafter  from  the  penalty  of  our  sins,  but 
save  us  now  from  sinning  ?  If  we  are  not  saved 
now,  what  reason  have  we  to  suppose  that  we 
shall  be  hereafter  ? 

GOD  remembered  Abraham,  and  sent  Lot  out  of 
the  midst  of  the  overthrow.  Genesis  xix.  29. 
Because  of  the  prayers  of  one  man  God  deliv- 
ered another.  That  is  what  God  has  delighted 
to  do  from  that  day  to  this.  Not  only  physical 
deliverance  will  He  give,  because  of  intercessory 
prayer,  but  spiritual  deliverance  also.  Probably 
more  men  have  been  saved  in  Christ  because  of 
the  faithful  and  faith-filled  prayers  of  others,  since 
Christ  was  on  earth,  than  in  any  other  way.  To 
pray  for  a  friend,  patiently,  enduringly,  in  un- 
wavering faith,  perhaps  for  years,  and  to  continue 
in  this  prayer  until  the  spiritual  deliverance  or 
blessing  of  that  friend,  for  which  we  prayed,  is 
completed,  is  the  highest  service,  privilege  and 
obligation  that  God  gives  us.     How  faithless  we 


84  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

have  been  to  this  obligation!  What  a  joy  of 
heaven  itself  it  is  to  recognize  and  meet  this  obli- 
gation I  Who  is  even  now  being  "  sent  out  of  the 
midst  of  the  overthrow  "  because  oi your  prayers  ? 

/JND  Lot  ivent  up  out  of  Zoar,  and  dwelt  in  the 
-^^  mountain;  .  .  .  for  he  feared  to  dwell  in 
Zoar,     Genesis  xix.  30. 

So  that  is  what  Lot's  improvement  upon  God's 
choice  for  him  amounted  to.  He  said, "  Not  Thy 
will ;  but  mine."  God  gave  him  what  he  asked 
for;  and  when  he  got  it  he  found  he  did  not 
want  it.  But  he  could  never  regain,  now,  what 
he  had  lost  in  rejecting  God's  will  for  him  at  the 
time  that  God  wanted  him  to  take  it.  When 
God  offers  us  a  blessing — which  His  will  for  us 
always  is — we  cannot  turn  from  it,  try  our  own 
plans  until  we  find  them  to  be  failures,  and  then 
go  back  and  get  the  blessing  we  declined.  We 
may  get  a  second  or  third  best  then,  and  it  will 
still  be  better  than  anything  we  could  devise; 
but  the  ''  first  best "  of  God  can  be  had  only  by 
instant  obedience  to  His  first  call.  Father,  may 
I  give  all  Thy  plans  for  me  the  supremacy  in  my 
life  to-day. 


J 


ND  Abraham  said    .     .     .     But  God  came. 
Genesis  xx.  i  to  7. 
Abraham   feared  and  distrusted  God.     Then 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    8$ 

he  lied,  and,  so  far  as  he  could,  wrecked  and 
flung  from  him  the  whole  great  covenant  that 
God  had  made  with  him  for  himself  and  for  the 
redemption  of  the  world  ;  the  covenant  that  was 
to  lead  to  the  birth  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Saviour 
of  mankind.  Everything  for  time  and  eternity 
was  lost  for  Abraham  and  Sarah,  by  Abraham's 
sin.  "  But  God  earned  By  direct,  supernatural 
intervention  He  stopped  the  awful  onrush  of 
Abraham's  sin-chosen  destruction,  and  saved 
everything.  That  is  the  kind  of  Father  our 
God  is. 

Notice  several  facts.  This  sin  occurred  in  the 
life  of  one  who  had  habitually  walked  with  God. 
It  came  late  in  his  life,  after  God's  covenant  had 
been  renewed  and  reaffirmed  to  both  husband 
and  wife.  It  came  after  Abraham  had,  by  inter- 
cessory prayer,  saved  Lot  from  Sodom,  and  God 
had  shown  infinite  readiness  to  do  anything  that 
Abraham  asked.  The  sin  was  not  a  new  one, 
but  an  old  one,  and  Abraham  had  miserably 
failed,  and  been  saved  in  exactly  the  same  way 
before  (Gen.  xii.  10-20).  The  sin  came  through 
lack  of  faith  in  God's  ability  or  willingness  to  do 
what  He  had  already  shown  He  could  and  would 
do.  Abraham's  only  hope  was  in  God's  holding 
on  to  him. 

Let  us  take  all  these  lessons  deep  into  our 
hearts.     We  need  them  to-day. 


86  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

/JND  Abraham  said  of  Sarah  his  wifCy  She  is  my 
-"  sister.  .  .  .  And  God  said,  .  .  .  He 
is  a  prophet,  and  he  shall  pray  for  thee,  and  thou  shall 
live.     Genesis  xx.  2,  6,  7. 

Abraham  sinned,  the  old  sin  in  the  old  way, 
only  it  was  a  worse  sin  now  because  he  knew 
God  better  than  before.  And  God — instead  of 
casting  Abraham  off  forever  as  he  deserved,  or, 
at  the  very  least,  taking  from  him  all  his  promised 
privilege  and  leadership,  and  saving  him  only  "  as 
by  fire  " — gives  him  new,  high  privilege  before  a 
king,  as  God's  own  specially  appointed  repre- 
sentative, and  says  that  he  shall  pray  for  this 
king  in  order  that  his,  the  king's,  sin  may  be 
forgiven ! 

Can  you  imagine  Abraham's  breaking  heart 
of  humiliation,  the  blinding  tears  of  joy,  when  he 
came  to  himself  and  saw  how  God  was  treat- 
ing him  ?  We  all  know  about  it.  We  have 
sinned,  deliberately,  in  black  repudiation  of 
all  God's  love  and  goodness ;  and  God  has 
only  heaped  fresh  responsibilities,  honours, 
privileges  upon  us,  and  shamed  us  back  to 
Himself  by  the  overwhelming  evidence  of  His 
purpose  to  keep  on  trusting  us  to  the  end, 
however  we  may  distrust  Him.  That  is  God's 
way.  Let  it  be  our  way  toward  others  who  dis- 
appoint us.  And  let  us  not  disappoint  God  to- 
day. 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    8/ 

rHEN  Abimelech  called  Abraham,  and  said  unto 
/u'm,  .  .  .  Thou  hast  brought  on  me  and 
on  m/ kingdom  a  great  sin.  .  .  .  And  Abraham 
saidy  Because  I  thought,  Surely  the  fear  of  God  is  not 
in  this  place.     Genesis  xx.  8  to  i8. 

There  is  never  any  position  or  circumstance  in 
life  in  which  a  child  of  God,  who  is  Hving  and 
walking  with  and  serving  God,  has  any  right  to 
say,  "  The  fear  of  God  is  not  in  this  place."  The 
moment  we  say  it,  and  act  as  though  it  were  so, 
we  sin  ourselves  and  cause  others  to  sin,  as  Abra- 
ham did.  The  "  fear  of  God  "  is  there,  in  us  at 
least ;  and  it  is  there  also  in  God's  ordering  of 
the  lives  of  those  who  seem  not  to  know  or  care 
anything  about  Him.  The  darker  the  things 
about  us  become  the  more  we  need  to  remember 
this.  If  we  depart  a  hair's  breadth  from  what 
we  know  God  wants  us  to  do,  things  then  will 
indeed  be  dark:  our  own  sin  and  the  conse- 
quences of  it  in  the  lives  of  others  make  a  situa- 
tion tragically  worse  than  it  needed,  or  ought,  to 
have  been.  Let  me  see  to  it  that  the  "  fear  of 
God  "  is  masterfully  in  7;ie  all  the  day  long :  then 
it  shall  be  in  every  situation  into  which  He  may 
bring  me. 

yf^D  Jehovah  visited  Sarah  as  he  had  saidj  and 
•^■^  Jehovah  did  unto  Sarah  as  he  had  spoken 
.  .  .  at  the  set  time  of  which  God  had  spoken. 
Genesis  xxi.  i  to  7. 


SS  MESSAGES  1^0 Ji  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

Twenty-five  years  before,  God  had  made  His 
first  recorded  promise  to  Abraham  concerning 
this  event.  At  the  time  set  by  God,  not  by 
Abraham,  it  came  to  pass.  Because  Abraham 
and  Sarah  in  their  own  minds  had  set  the  time 
very  much  earlier  and  had  been  disappointed, 
they  had  given  up  hope  long  before  this.  But 
God,  in  His  own  good  time,  not  a  day  earlier, 
fulfilled  His  promise.  Have  you  waited  patiently, 
in  unshaken,  unswerving  trust,  for  twenty-five 
years,  for  that  cherished  hope  of  yours  which  you 
believed  to  be  God's  will  for  you  or  for  some  one 
else  ?  Or  have  you,  after  a  year  or  two  of  wait- 
ing, perhaps  even  five  or  ten  years  of  waiting, 
grown  discouraged  and  hopeless  ?  Your  "  set 
time  "  may  be  longer  than  Abraham's — thirty, 
forty,  or  fifty  years.  But  God's  word  cannot  fail. 
Wait  on  the  Lord  :  be  of  good  courage,  and  He 
shall  strengthen  thine  heart :  wait,  I  say,  on  the 
Lord. 

/JND  Abraham  .  .  .  sent  her  aivay,  .  .  . 
-^-^  And  the  water  in  the  bottle  was  spent.  .  .  . 
And  God  heard.  .  .  .  And  God  opened  her  e/es, 
and  she  saw  a  well  of  water.     Genesis  xxi.  8  to  21. 

It  does  not  say  that  God  miraculously  created 
a  well  of  water  to  save  Hagar's  life  and  her  boy's, 
but  only  that  "  God  opened  her  eyes  "  that  she 
should  see  what  had  been  there  all  the  time.     Our 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    89 

life  is  always  lived  in  the  midst  of  God's  special 
provisions  for  our  particular  needs.  When  it 
seems  to  us  that  the  time  has  come,  through  the 
cruelty  or  thoughtlessness  or  sin  of  others,  when 
all  is  over  for  us,  and  our  situation  is  beyond 
hope,  then  God  opens  our  eyes  :  and  behold,  "  a 
well  of  water."  Dr.  Horton  has  said  that  the 
resources  of  the  Christian  life  are  just  Jesus 
Christ.  When  all  hope  seems  to  have  died.  He 
is  right  here  ;  and  when  our  eyes  have  been 
opened,  we  may  see,  and  take,  if  we  will,  of  this 
well  of  water  springing  up  into  eternal  life. 

Read  the  story  of  that  other  woman  of  long 
ago,  who  thought  her  hfe  was  abandoned  and  lost 
because  the  water  in  her  bottle  was  spent ;  but 
whose  eyes  were  opened  to  see  a  well  of  water 
the  like  of  which  she  had  not  dreamed  could  ever 
come  into  her  life  (John  iv.  4-26,  39-42). 

yJBIMELECH  .  .  .  spake  unto  Abraham, 
-^^  saying,  God  is  iviih  thee  in  all  that  thou  doest.- 
.  .  .  So  they  made  a  covenant  at  Beer-sheba. 
.  .  .  And  Abraham  .  .  .  called  there  on 
the  name  of  Jehovah,  the  Everlasting  God.  Genesis 
xxi.  22  to  34. 

Has  God  the  mastery  of  your  life  so  com- 
pletely, that  those  persons  around  you  who  do 
not  honour  Him,  nevertheless  see  that  your  life 
is  radically  different  from  theirs,  and  is  so  desir- 


90  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

able  and  attractive  that  they  want  to  keep  close 
to  you  and  "  on  your  right  side  "  ?  This  will 
inevitably  be  so  when  you  have  died  unto  self  so 
completely  that  it  is  only  Christ  that  liveth  in 
you.  And  when  you  have  this  rejoicing,  up- 
lifting experience  of  Abraham's,  you  will  just 
have  to  turn  to  God  again,  the  Everlasting  God, 
as  he  did  at  Beer-sheba,  and  give  God  all  the 
glory.  If  you  are  not  having  this  experience, 
what  is  the  reason  ?  My  Christ,  if  Thou  be  lifted 
up  in  my  hfe,  Thou  wilt,  in  me,  draw  others  unto 
Thee.  Oh,  wilt  Thou  enter  and  master  me  now 
so  that  Thou  mayest  do  this  Thy  work  through 
me, —  yet  not  for  my  honour,  but  for  Thine. 

GOD  did  prove  Abraham,  and  said  unto  him, 
Abraham;  and  he  said,  Here  am  I.  .  .  . 
And  Abraham  said,  God  will  provide.  Genesis  xxii. 
I  to  8. 

Between  this  record  in  Genesis  and  the  Gospel 
records  of  Jesus'  offering  of  Himself  on  Calvary, 
there  is  no  passage  in  all  the  Bible,  and  certainly 
none  in  outside  history  and  literature,  which 
gives  such  a  picture  of  quiet,  peace-filled  trust  in 
God  amid  the  awful  stress  of  heart-breaking  agony. 
Nothing  can  be  added ;  little  need  be  said  of  it. 
Read  the  eight  verses  over  and  over ;  then  these 
words,  quoted  here,  which  sum  up  the  whole 
thing.     God  is  love,  always  love,  and  only  love. 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    9 1 

When,  because  of  His  love,  He  would  prove  me, 
am  I  ready  to  say,  *'  Here  am  I  "  ?  When  the 
proving  reaches  the  limit  of  heart  endurance,  and 
then  goes  beyond,  and  the  heart  breaks  under  it, 
shall  I  say,  in  quietness  and  peace,  "  God  will 
provide  "  ?  If  in  Christ  I  will  so  trust  my  Fa- 
ther, how  richly  will  He  honour  and  bless  the 
trust  that  survives  the  test  that  breaks  the  heart ! 

yfND  they  came  to  the  place  which  God  had  told 
-^^     him  of.     Genesis  xxii.  9. 

It  was  the  place  of  sacrifice :  the  costHest 
sacrifice  that  ever  man  could  be  asked  to  make, 
and  compared  with  which  the  mere  losing  of  his 
own  life  would  have  been  a  trifle.  In  offering 
up  Isaac,  Abraham  had  to  lay  down  his  own 
will,  himself,  his  spirit,  in  absolute  self-death  be- 
fore God.  But  God  had  told  him  of  it,  and  he 
was  ready.  God  has  told  us  of  it  in  our  own 
lives  ;  just  such  absolute  death  of  self  is  going  to 
be  called  for  in  us,  some  time,  by  a  situation  in 
our  life  which  we  may  not  yet  have  come  to. 
But  God  has  told  us  of  it ;  Christ  makes  it 
eternally  plain  in  calling  us  into  His  Way  of 
Life,  which  is  the  Way  of  the  Cross,  the  sign  of 
death.  Indeed,  many  a  temptation  assails  us  in 
which  any  asserting  of  self  means  wreck :  only 
self-death  in  Christ  can  make  victory  possible : 
it  is  the  place  which  God  has  told  us  of.     And 


92  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

there  may  come  great  crisis-times,  if  they  have 
not  already  come,  when  self-death  is  the  only 
way  of  salvation.  Let  us  not  be  found  unpre- 
pared :  it  is  the  place  which  God  has  told  us  of. 

/J^D  Abraham  built  the  altar  there^  .  .  . 
-^^  and  took  the  knife  to  slay  his  son.  And  the 
angel  of  Jehovah  called  unto  him,  .  .  .  Lay 
not  thy  hand  upon  the  lad.     Genesis  xxii.  9  to  12. 

Our  hardest  sacrifices  are  never  so  hard  as  we 
thought  they  were  going  to  be,  ^we  go  on  with 
them  to  the  very  uttermost  that  God  asks.  A 
sacrifice  of  self  to  God's  will  made  half-way,  or 
even  nine-tenths,  is  a  grinding,  cruel  experience. 
When  it  is  made  the  w/iole  way,  with  the  altar 
built,  and  self  in  one's  dearest  hope  laid  upon  the 
altar,  God  always  comes  with  an  unexpected 
blessing  that  so  overwhelms  us  with  love  and  joy 
that  the  hardship  of  the  sacrifice  sinks  out  of 
sight.  "  Now  I  know  that  thou  fearest  God, 
seeing  thou  hast  not  withheld."  Can  He  say 
that  to  us  to-day  ?  No  one  ever  knows  the  full 
joy  of  hearing  this  word  from  God  until  the 
altar  has  been  built,  and  the  knife  is  laid  to  the 
sacrifice. 

TN  the   mount  of  Jehovah  it  shall  be  provided. 
-*     Genesis  xxii.  13,  14. 

That  is  the  mount  upon  which  God  wants  us 
to  live  to-day,  and  every  day.     We  talk  a  good 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    93 

deal  about  the  mountain  tops  and  the  valleys  of 
our  lives,  and  the  ups  and  downs,  as  though  it 
were  necessary  for  us  to  shift  from  one  to  the 
other  in  our  relations  with  God.  It  is  not.  Only 
sin  can  lead  us  away  from  the  mount  in  which 
Jehovah  will  gloriously  provide.  And  sin  is 
never  necessary.  The  way  to  this  mount  of 
God's  supernatural  provision  is  self-death,  as  it 
was  with  Abraham:  taking  up  the  cross — the 
sign  of  death — daily y  and  following  Him  whose 
self-death  gave  us  life.  The  mount  itself  was 
the  place  of  sacrifice.  But  when  we  live  there, 
in  continued  sacrifice,  we  have  a  companionship 
with  God  and  a  wealth  of  provision  which  nothing 
can  take  away.  May  every  day  be  my  mount 
of  Jehovah's  providing ! 

TIECAUSE  thou  hast  done  this  thing,  and  hast 
•^  not  withheld  thy  son,  thine  only  son,  .  .  . 
/  will  multiply  thy  seed  as  the  stars  of  the  heavens  ; 
.  .  .  because  thou  hast  obeyed  my  voice.  Genesis 
xxii.  15  to  24. 

And  from  that  day  to  this  men  have  been 
learning  that  when,  at  God's  voice,  they  surrender 
up  to  Him  the  one  thing  above  all  else  that  was 
dearest  to  their  very  heart's  blood,  that  same 
thing  is  returned  to  them  by  Him  a  thousand 
times  over. 

Abraham  gives  up  his  one  and  only  son,  at 


94  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

God's  call,  and  with  this  disappear  all  his  hopes 
for  the  boy's  life  and  manhood,  and  for  a  noble 
family  bearing  his  name.  But  the  boy  is  re- 
stored, the  family  becomes  as  the  stars  and  sands 
in  number,  and  out  of  it,  in  the  fullness  of  time, 
appears  Jesus  Christ.  That  is  just  the  way  God 
meets  every  real  sacrifice  of  every  child  of  His. 
We  surrender  all  and  accept  poverty :  He  sends 
wealth.  We  renounce  a  rich  field  of  service: 
He  sends  us  a  richer  one  than  we  had  dared  to 
dream  of.  We  give  up  all  our  cherished  hopes 
and  die  unto  self :  He  sends  the  hfe  more  abun- 
dant, and  tingling  joy.  And  the  crown  of  it  all 
is  our  Jesus  Christ.  For  we  can  never  know  the 
fullness  of  the  life  that  is  Christ  until  we  have 
made  Abraham's  supreme  sacrifice. 

The  earthly  founder  of  the  family  of  Christ 
must  commence  by  losing  himself  and  his  only 
son,  just  as  the  heavenly  Founder  of  that  family 
did.  We  cannot  be  members  of  that  family, 
with  the  full  privileges  and  joys  of  membership, 
upon  any  other  basis. 

cr'HOU  art  a  prince  of  God  among  us.     Gen- 

-^     esis  xxiii. 

In  this  quaintly  told,  thoroughly  Oriental  pic- 
ture of  the  bargain  made  between  two  men,  with 
its  exquisite  touches  of  pathos,  its  delicate 
humour,   and    its   wonderful   literary   simplicity 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    95 

and  power,  the  one  word  that  stands  out  high 
above  all  the  rest  is  the  people's  characterization 
of  Abraham  :  "  Thou  art  a  prince  of  God  among 
us."  And  that  is  just  what  God  is  calling  you 
and  me  to  be  to-day  among  our  fellows.  Not 
that  we  should  ever  be  able  to  go  about  with  any 
consciousness  of  having  attained  to  this :  that 
would  effectually  destroy  it.  But  it  is  His  will 
that  we  should  let  His  Son  our  Christ  so  master, 
occupy,  possess,  and  use  us  that  we  shall  all  be, 
in  glorious  literalness  and  reality,  princes  of  God 
among  men.  What  is  there  in  me  that  I  am 
opposing  to  Him  in  this  ?  Christ,  purge  it  out 
of  my  life  now,  that  Thou  mayest  show  Thyself, 
in  all  my  Hfe,  to  others. 

<>fEHOVAH,  the  God  of  heaven,  .  .  .  he 
J  will  send  his  angel  before  thee.  Genesis 
xxiv.  I  to  9. 

There  is  the  quiet  but  infinitely  sufficient  as- 
surance that  we  have  concerning  the  outcome  of 
anything  we  undertake  which  is  in  accordance 
with  God's  will.  For  then  it  is  not  we  that  are 
undertaking  it ;  it  is  God.  He  has  planned  it, 
He  is  doing  it,  He  has  sent  His  angel  on  ahead 
to  prepare  for  it  in  supernatural  ways  and  with 
irresistible  power ;  and  He  is  simply  using  us  as 
His  instrument  for  His  own  doing  of  His  own 
work.     His  work  cannot  fail ;  therefore  we  can- 


96  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

not  fail  in  anything  thus  undertaken  in  accord- 
ance with  His  will. 

Abraham  knew  that  he  was  perfectly  safe  in 
absolving  his  servant  from  the  oath  in  case  the 
plan  fell  through,  for  he  knew  that  God's  plan 
would  not  fall  through.  He  must  have  made 
this  seeming  concession  simply  to  ease  the  serv- 
ant's mind,  and  not  because  he  himself  was  in 
any  doubt.  God  never  commissions  us  to  do 
anything  for  Him  without  at  the  same  time  pre- 
paring the  way,  by  His  own  direct  action.  If 
He  asks  us  to  do  something  that  is  to  affect  the 
life  of  another,  He  is  working  in  that  other's 
life  to  prepare  it  for  what  we  are  to  do.  Always 
He  sends  His  angel  on  ahead  of  us.  How 
foohsh  and  wrong  of  us  ever  to  hold  back  from 
any  commission  of  such  a  God ! 

/^  JEHOVAH,  ...  show  kindness  unto  my 
^^  master  Abraham.  .  .  .  Let  the  same  be  she 
that  thou  hast  appointed.     Genesis  xxiv.  lo  to  14. 

May  my  prayers,  to-day  and  always,  be  as  true 
and  lofty  and  unselfish  and  sure  of  answer  as 
was  this  of  Abraham's  trusted  servant !  He  was 
a  man  of  God ;  he  knew  how  to  pray.  It  was 
an  intercessory  prayer,  wholly  in  behalf  of  others. 
And  it  asked  for  only  one  thing :  that  he  should 
be  enabled  to  see  unerringly  what  God's  plan, 
God's  appointment,  was.     He  did  not  ask  God 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    97 

to  do  what  he,  the  servant,  wanted,  but  he  asked 
that  he  might  be  directed,  by  a  simple  and 
wholly  reasonable  sign,  to  the  doing  of  God's 
will  and  the  fulfilhng  of  God's  plan.  If  this 
spirit  and  purpose  fill  my  life,  answered  prayer 
will  be  my  habitual  experience. 

v^ND  it  came  to  pass,  before  he  had  done  speak- 
-"  ing.  .  .  .  And  he  said,  Blessed  be  Je- 
hovah, .  .  .  who  hath  not  forsaken  his  loving- 
kindness  and  his  truth.     Genesis  xxiv.  15  to  27. 

Every  right  prayer  is  answered  before  the 
prayer  itself  is  finished — before  we  have  "  done 
speaking."  This  is  because  God  has  pledged 
His  word  to  us  that  whatsoever  we  ask  in 
Christ's  name  (that  is,  in  oneness  with  Christ 
and  His  will)  and  in  faith,  shall  be  done.  As 
God's  word  cannot  fail,  whenever  we  meet  these 
simple  conditions  in  prayer  the  answer  to  our 
prayer  has  been  granted  and  completed  in  heaven 
as  we  pray,  even  though  its  showing  forth  on 
earth  may  not  occur  until  long  afterward.  So  it 
is  well  to  close  every  prayer  with  praise  to  God 
for  the  answer  that  He  has  already  granted  ;  He 
who  never  forsakes  His  lovingkindness  and  His 
truth.     See  Daniel  ix.  20-23  ;  x.  12. 

^A^D  the  damsel  ran,  and  told  her  mother's 
■^^  house.  .  .  .  And  Laban  ran  out  unto  the 
man.     Genesis  xxiv.  28  to  49. 


98  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

Things  were  moving  rapidly  just  now  to  fulfill 
God's  plan  for  Abraham's  son  ;  people  fairly  ran 
to  bring  things  to  pass.  There  had  been  times 
in  Abraham's  Hfe  when  things  did  not  move  so 
rapidly,  but  when  the  delay  seemed  so  unen- 
durable that  Abraham  and  Sarah  gave  up  all 
hope.  That  is  the  way  God  varies  our  life.  To- 
day, things  may  run,  or  things  may  drag,  or 
things  may  seem  to  stand  still.  Even  worse, 
things  may  seem  to  move  backward.  But  if  we 
are  doing  God's  will,  and  only  God's  will,  we 
may  be  sure  that  His  unseen  messengers  are  run- 
ning to  meet  us  and  to  carry  forward  unerringly 
and  irresistibly  every  plan  that  He  has  for  us. 
Let  us  simply  hold  true  to  the  plan,  in  quiet 
trust,  as  Abraham's  servant  did. 

TIYHEN  Abraham's  servant  heard  their  words,  he 
'^'  bowed  himself  down  to  the  earth  unto  Jehovah. 
Genesis  xxiv.  50  to  60. 

It  would  be  well  for  us  all  to  receive  as  coming 
directly  from  the  hand  of  God  everything  that 
comes  to  us,  whether  seeming  good  or  ill,  which 
is  beyond  our  own  control  to  determine.  This 
man  did  not  bow  down  to  those  who  had  spoken 
the  words  that  rejoiced  him,  but  to  Jehovah. 
God  had  sent  this  blessing ;  therefore  he  thanked 
God.  And  if  to-day  there  are  spoken  to  me 
words  of  a  very  different  sort  from  seeming  bless- 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    99 

ing,  may  I  have  the  trust  and  love  and  courage 
to  bow  myself  down  unto  Jehovah — yes,  even  in 
gratitude  for  what  He  sees  best  to  send  me !  So 
of  every  pleasant  word  or  gift  that  comes  into 
my  life.  May  I  interpret  all  my  life — excepting 
only  my  own  sin — in  the  terms  of  God's  loving 
provision  for  my  particular  needs;  and  may  I 
grow'  in  the  habit  of  bowing  down  in  praise  unto 
my  heavenly  Father  for  all  that  comes  into  my 
life! 

yf^D  the  servant  took  Rebekah  .  .  .  And 
-"  she  said  unto  the  servant  .  .  .  And  the 
servant  said  .  .  .  And  the  servant  told  Isaac, 
Genesis  xxiv.  6i  to  67. 

Nothing  but  an  unnamed  servant,  even  after 
the  blessed  and  happy  conclusion  of  this  romance 
and  marriage,  in  the  bringing  to  pass  of  which 
he  had  been  the  all-important  human  instrument. 
Just  "  the  servant  this,"  and  "  the  servant  that"  ; 
never  of  enough  consequence  to  give  his  name. 
Even  when  he  had  introduced  himself  to  the  new 
family,  it  was  simply,  "  I  am  Abraham's  servant." 
And  he  was  the  one  man  in  all  the  earth  upon 
whose  tact  and  judgment  God  was  depending  to 
select  a  wife  and  mother  to  be  second  in  the  line 
of  the  family  of  Jesus  Christ.  Perhaps  nowhere 
in  the  Bible,  except  in  Christ  Himself,  shall  we 
find  a  more  perfect  example  of  selfless  service 


lOO  A4 ESS  AGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WA  TCH 

joined  with  remarkable  human  endowments  and 
complete  consecration  than  in  this  man  who 
comes  down  through  all  history  as  only  an  un- 
named servant.  Am  /  willing  to  be  thus  unknown 
and  unnamedjn  the  biggest  and  best  things  that 
God  may  ever  use  me  for  ?  He  can  never  use 
me  as  He  would,  until  I  am. 

Master,  Servant  of  all  and  Lord  of  all,  crucify 
with  Thyself  into  eternal  death  this  self  of  mine 
that  clamours  for  "  recognition  "  and  "  honour  " 
that  I  may  rejoice  most  in  the  nameless,  unknown 
service  that  lifts  into  honour  and  recognition  only 
Thyself  and  Thy  Name. 

/f  ^^  Abraham  gave  all  that  he  had  unto  Isaac, 
-"  .  .  .  And  it  came  to  pass  after  the  death 
of  Abraham,  that  God  blessed  Isaac  his  son.    Genesis 

XXV.    I   to   II. 

And  now  Abraham's  fate  and  record  and  repu- 
tation as  a  father  were  in  Isaac's  hands.  Upon 
Isaac's  life  depended  history's  verdict  upon  Abra- 
ham's worth  or  worthlessness  as  a  father.  And 
on  our  lives  depends  the  public's  verdict  upon 
our  parents.  "  Our  duty  to  make  the  past  a  suc- 
cess," it  has  been  called.  Every  sin  of  mine, 
whether  I  like  to  have  it  so  or  not,  is  a  reflection 
on  my  parents'  training.  Every  evidence  of 
Christ  in  my  life  adds  to  their  honour  as  parents. 
They  have  given  all  that  they  had  unto  me.     For 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     lOI 

their  sakes,  God  is  blessing  me.  For  their  sakes, 
let  me  so  receive  and  use  His  blessings  that  He 
in  my  life  may  add  honour  to  them. 

AJOW  these  are  the  generations  of  Ishmael : 
■^^  .  .  .  he  abode  over  against  all  his  breth- 
ren.    Genesis  xxv.  12  to  18. 

Not  only  in  the  place  of  his  Hving,  but  in  his 
relationships,  was  Ishmael  "  over  against  all  his 
brethren  "  ;  and  this  was  the  direct  result  of  the 
sin  of  his  father  in  distrusting  God  and  trying  to 
improve  upon  God's  plans.  We  cannot  fathom 
the  mystery  of  how  our  sin  actually  passes  on  in 
injury  into  the  lives  of  others  who  are  not  re- 
sponsible for  it ;  but  we  must  accept  God's  word 
for  it  that  it  does.  And  every  sin  I  commit  puts 
me  "  over  against "  my  brethren,  as  it  puts  me 
"  over  against "  my  Father,  God ;  while  my  every 
victory  over  sin  enables  me  to  draw  nearer  to  my 
brethren,  and  enables  Christ — who  alone  wins 
every  such  victory  for  me — to  give  of  Himself 
through  me  to  my  brethren.  These  are  the 
choices  and  results  that  confront  me  to-day. 

DEHOLD,  I  am  about  to  die.     .     .     ,    So  Esau 

-^     despised  his  birthright.     Genesis  xxv.  19  to  34. 

If  my  '*  birthright  "  in  Jesus  Christ  is  not  worth 

holding  on  to,  even  at  the  cost  of  losing  my  life  for 

it,  what  does  it  really  am  ount  to  ?     The  Christian's 


102  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

"  birthright  " — the  right  which  comes  to  every- 
one upon  his  new  birth  in  Christ — is  "  Christ  in 
you  " :  it  is  the  right  to  let  Christ  Hve  out  His 
Hfe  in  you,  do  His  will  and  His  work  in  you 
and  through  you  every  hour  of  your  Hfe.  That 
is  our  best  and  dearest  right,  our  "  birthright." 
Sometimes  it  may  seem  as  though  we  must  part 
with  hfe  itself  if  we  hold  on  to  this.  Well,  what 
if  we  must  ?  Which  is  worth  more  to  us :  Christ, 
or  mere  human  life?  Shall  we  despise  our 
"  birthright "  ? 

/JND  there  was  a  famine  in  the  land,  besides  the 
-^-^  first  famine  that  was  in  the  days  of  Abraham. 
.  .  .  Go  not  down  into  Egypt :  .  .  .  and  I 
will  be  with  thee,  and  will  bless  thee.  Genesis  xxvi. 
1  to  5. 

The  difficulties  and  perils  and  crises  that  came 
to  my  father  will  come  to  me ;  his  having  met 
them  cannot  keep  me  from  having  to  meet  them. 
And,  while  his  every  act  of  righteousness  is  an 
asset  of  mine,  I  receive  its  full  value  only  if  I, 
independently  and  of  my  own  will,  meet  my  diffi- 
culties in  faith  and  obedience.  Moreover,  God 
wants  all  of  us  to  do  better  than  our  parents  did, 
no  matter  how  well  they  did.  Abraham's  record 
was  a  fine  one;  but  God  wanted  Isaac's  to  be 
finer.  Abraham  sinned  by  going  into  Egypt; 
God  warned  Isaac  against  that  very  sin. 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     103 

Our  father's  religion  and  our  father's  record 
will  not  carry  us  through ;  we  must  have  our 
own ;  and  the  better  his  was,  the  greater  is  our 
obligation  to  do  better  still. 

yiND  he  said,  She  is  my  sister :  for  he  feared  to 
-"  safy  My  wife.  .  .  .  And  Abimelech 
charged  all  the  people,  saying,  He  that  toucheth  this 
man  or  his  wife  shall  surely  be  put  to  death.  Genesis 
xxvi.  6  to  II. 

That  is  the  way  we  repay  God  for  His  love, 
and  that  is  the  way  God  repays  us  for  our  sin. 
We  sin  against  His  love  and  He  but  loves  the 
more  against  our  sin.  Isaac  was  afraid  of  the 
imaginary  peril  of  telling  the  truth,  and,  in 
dehberate  sin  and  ungrateful,  traitorous  distrust 
of  the  God  who  had  just  pledged  Himself  in 
overwhelming  assurance,  he  preferred  the  real 
peril  of  telling  a  lie.  No  matter  what  the  seem- 
ing, or  even  the  assured,  disaster  of  truth-telling 
may  be,  it  is  never  so  bad  as  the  hell-born,  devil- 
directed  sin  of  telling  a  lie.  And  the  fact  that 
Isaac  lied  was  a  worse  disaster  to  him  than  any 
evil  results  of  his  lying  could  have  been ;  and 
even  God's  goodness  in  averting  all  evil  results 
could  not  undo  the  disaster  of  the  lie  itself.  But 
God's  care  and  love  did  not  waver  even  under 
Isaac's  unworthiness ;  and  that  is  our  richest 
blessing   as    it    is   our   only  hope.     But  let   us 


I04  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

to-day  work  with  God's  love  rather  than  against 
it. 

/f^D  they  said,  We  saw  plainly  that  Jehovah 
■^-^     was  with  thee.     Genesis  xxvi.  1 2  to  33. 

Nothing  that  can  ever  be  said  of  us  will  be 
better  than  that.  The  evidence  of  Jehovah's 
presence,  however  it  may  have  seemed  to  those 
Philistines,  showed  not  so  much  in  Isaac's  great 
earthly  possessions  as  in  his  behaviour  under  the 
most  aggravated  injustice.  There  are  not  many 
pictures,  in  the  Bible  or  elsewhere,  that  equal 
this  one  in  giving  us  a  vivid  ghmpse  of  practical, 
manly  righteousness.  Isaac  was  a  man  of  peace ; 
not  because  he  was  afraid  to  fight,  but  because 
he  had  nothing  to  fight  for  but  his  own  rights 
and  interests,  and  that  he  would  not  do.  So  God 
blessed  him,  and  reasserted  His  covenant  with 
him ;  and  his  ungodly  neighbours,  even  his 
enemies,  seeing  that  God  was  with  him,  wanted 
to  get  close  to  him  and  be  on  his  right  side. 
May  I  pay  the  price  that  Isaac  paid  for  this,  even 
the  death  of  self!  And  may  men,  seeing  that 
God  is  with  me,  come  close  to  me  that  God 
through  me  may  reach  them  ! 

yf  ND  Jacob  said  unto  his  father,  I  am  Esau 
■^^  thy  first-born.  .  .  .  So  he  blessed  him. 
Genesis  xxvi.  34  to  xxvii.  29. 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     10$ 

It  is  a  pitiable  story  of  dishonour,  with  a  trail 
of  misery  and  suffering,  bitterness  and  hatred, 
that  ran  on  and  on  for  years  afterward.  No  man 
ever  lied  himself,  or  any  one  else,  into  a  blessing. 
The  whole  incident  meant  simply  a  curse  upon 
Jacob  and  Rebekah,  in  which  Isaac  and  Esau 
suffered  also. 

And  so  it  is  with  every  hair's  breadth  depar- 
ture from  the  truth.  Few  of  us  are  likely  to  lie 
openly  and  deliberately  as  did  Jacob.  But  how 
many  of  us  are  prayerfully  watchful  against  ex- 
aggeration, against  giving  as  fact  what  is  only 
hearsay,  against  saying  we  know  when  we  only 
think  we  know :  scrupulously  careful  that  only 
truth  shall  ever  pass  our  lips  ?  "  Stand,  there- 
fore, having  girded  your  loins  with  truth." 

T  TE  cried  with  an  exceeding  great  and  hitter  cry. 
■^  -^  .  .  .  He  took  away  my  birthright ;  and^ 
behold,  now  he  hath  taken  away  my  blessing. 
Genesis  xxvii.  30  to  36. 

There  was  just  about  as  much  truth  in  that 
lament  of  Esau's  as  there  is  in  a  man's  cry  to- 
day that  some  one  else  has  ruined  his  life.  It 
was  not  true  then,  and  it  is  not  true  now.  No 
man's  real  "  birthright  "  or  "  blessing  "  has  ever 
been  taken  from  him  by  another.  Esau  volun- 
tarily gave  up  his  "  birthright "  in  a  fit  of 
cowardly,    selfish     fear.      The   *'  blessing,"    that 


I06  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

Jacob  thought  he  had  secured,  brought  him 
and  his  mother  only  a  long  trail  of  misery. 
Esau  lost  his  "  blessing"  not  by  what  Jacob 
had  done,  but  by  the  attitude  of  murderous 
hatred  that  Esau  now  took  toward  Jacob. 
Esau  still  had  wide  open  to  him  the  possibility 
of  playing  the  part  of  a  man,  in  unselfish  love 
and  Godlikeness.  That  is  enough  of  a  "  bless- 
ing" for  any  one,  and  no  one  but  himself  can 
rob  him  of  that  "  blessing  "  and  "  birthright." 
May  I  remember  the  next  time  I  seem  to  be 
wronged  in  any  way  that  /  am  the  only  one  who 
can  wrong  or  rob  or  injure  or  defraud  me ! 

TJAST  thou  but  one  blessing,  my  father}  bless 
•^-^  me,  even  me  also,  O  my  father.  Genesis 
xxvii.  37  to  40. 

No  one  need  ever  cry  out  to  the  heavenly  Fa- 
ther in  Esau's  bitter  hopelessness  or  uncertainty. 
No  one  can  deceive  my  Father  and  get  Him  to 
bestow  elsewhere  the  blessing  that  He  intended 
for  me.  Even  if,  by  disobedience,  I  have  robbed 
myself  of  the  blessing  that  He  intended,  I  need 
never  fear,  for  He  has  ten  thousand  times  ten 
thousand  blessings,  and  they  may  be  mine  for 
the  taking.  After  I  have  put  from  me,  either  in 
willful  or  in  unconscious  sin,  the  first,  and  there- 
fore the  best,  blessing  He  had  for  me,  there  is 
another  blessing  awaiting  me  which  I  may  still 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    10/ 

have  the  instant  I  turn  to  Him  again  in  penitence 
and  obedience ;  and  so  His  third,  or  fourth,  or 
one  hundredth  best  blessing,  if  in  sin  I  have  re- 
jected all  His  earlier  blessings,  is  still  offered  to 
me,  and  is  infinitely  richer  and  better  than  any 
good  I  can  ever  know  without  Him.  What  a 
Father  we  have ! 

yJND  Esau  hated  Jacob  because  of  the  blessing 
-^-^  wherewith  his  father  blessed  him.  Genesis 
xxvii.  41. 

And  thereby  Esau  robbed  himself  of  more 
than  Jacob  had  ever  robbed  him  of,  or  ever 
could  rob  him  of.  This  business  of  hating  a  fel- 
low man  because  he  has  a  blessing  that  we  think 
ought  to  be  ours  is  awfully  unworthy — and  aw- 
fully common.  We  do  not  call  it  "  hating  "  to- 
day, nor  does  it  often  work  out  in  the  vulgar 
sort  of  murder  that  Esau  planned  and  hoped  for. 
But  how  often  we  let  ourselves  feel  bitterly 
toward  some  one  who  is  getting  recognition  or 
honour  or  praise  that  we  want  and  that  we  think 
we  ought  to  have  !  In  church  work,  in  the  busi- 
ness office  or  shop,  in  home  or  college — the  Esau 
taint  is  something  that  we  all  know  about.  It  is 
poison  of  the  most  demoralizing  and  deadly  sort. 
It  eats  into  our  vitals,  clouds  our  vision,  un- 
steadies  our  judgment,  embitters  our  whole  out- 
look on  life,  and  destroys  our  usefulness.     The 


I08  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

instant  we  find  ourselves  beginning  to  have  this 
feehng  toward  any  one,  let  us  turn  in  conscious 
helplessness  to  the  God  of  love,  and  ask  Him  in 
Christ  to  work  in  us  the  instant  miracle  of  chang- 
ing our  feelings  as  we  ourselves  are  powerless  to 
do.  Then  let  us  rejoice  in  the  blessing  where- 
with our  Father  has  blessed  our  friend. 

DEHOLDjthjr  brother  EsaUj  .  .  .  purposing 
•*-^  to  kill  thee.  .  .  .  Flee  thou  to  Laban, 
.  .  .  and  tarry  with  him  a  few  days.  Genesis 
xxvii.  42  to  45. 

The  one  who  had  proposed  and  insisted  upon 
the  sin  now  makes  light  of  the  results  of  the  sin 
that  are  already  commencing  to  appear.  When 
Jacob  had  first  protested,  his  mother  had  an- 
swered reassuringly,  "  Upon  me  be  thy  curse, 
my  son  ;  only  obey  my  voice  "  (xxvii.  1 3).  For 
sin  and  its  results  hate  to  be  recognized  at  their 
true  value.  That  true  value  is  so  terrific  that  we 
must  discount  it  in  order  to  sin  with  any  com- 
fort at  all.  The  "  few  days  "  that  Jacob  "  tar- 
ried "  away  from  home  became  some  forty  years. 
His  mother  never  saw  him  again  in  this  world. 
She  was  bereaved  of  both  her  sons  in  one  day  ; 
and  she  had  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  it 
was  by  her  own  choice  and  of  her  own  sin  :  the 
curse  that  she  lightly  assumed  was  allowed  her 
in  full  measure.     And  she  made  both  her  sons  to 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     lOQ 

sin,  in  a  way  that  took  forty  years  to  wipe  out. 
Sin  is  always  miserable  and  ghastly  in  itself  and 
in  its  consequences.  The  more  trifling  it  seems, 
the  more  dangerous  it  is  by  that  very  fact. 

GOD  Almighty  bless  thee,  .  .  .  that  thou 
mayest  be  a  company  of  peoples ;  .  .  .  that 
thou  may  est  inherit  the  land  ofthysojournings.  Gen- 
esis xxvii.  46  to  xxviii.  4. 

This  constant  prayer  for  fruitfulness  and  for 
possession  of  the  land  comes  to  us  as  a  foregleam 
of  the  challenge  that  our  Gospel  gives  us  :  that 
we  may  let  Christ  use  us  to  multiply  in  others 
the  life  in  Him  that  He  has  given  us ;  and  that 
the  land  where  we  live  may  thus  be  inherited 
and  possessed  by  those  who  are  living  the  hfe 
that  is  Christ.  The  multiplication  of  our  eternal 
life  by  our  sharing  it  with  others — is  it  not  the 
chief  reason  for  our  continuing  to  live  on  earth  ? 
Christ  wants  each  one  of  us  to  become  a  com- 
pany of  peoples.  It  is  simply  faithfulness  to  the 
Great  Commission  that  He  asks.     Am  I  faithful  ? 

AJOW  Esau  saw  that  Isaac  had  blessed  Jacob, 
■^^  .  .  .  saying,  Thou  shall  not  take  a  wife 
of  the  daughters  of  Canaan ;  .  .  .  and  Esau 
.  .  .  took  .  .  .  Mahalath  the  daughter  of 
Ishmael  .  .  .  to  be  his  wife.  Genesis  xxviii. 
5  to  9. 

We  cannot  make  a  wrong  right  by  plastering 


1 10  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WA  TCH 

a  right  over  it.  Esau  had  no  real  desire  to  do 
right ;  he  was  merely  after  his  father's  favour  and 
blessing.  When  we  go  after  the  right  in  any- 
such  spirit,  we  are  not  even  capable  of  knowing 
what  is  right :  as  Esau  blunderingly  mistook  a 
daughter  of  Ishmael  for  one  of  the  pure  family 
blood,  overlooking  the  taint  of  Egypt  and  of  sin 
in  that  Hfe.  If  my  chief  motive  to-day  in  doing 
any  right  thing  is  to  get  something  temporal  for 
myself,  or  to  escape  the  penalty  of  some  sin,  I 
shall  fail  in  both  as  miserably  as  Esau  did.  My 
Saviour  and  Master,  wilt  Thou  purge  and  cleanse 
my  motives  and  very  desires  until  they  become 
no  less  than  Thy  own — to  do  the  will  of  my 
Father !  May  I  never  forget  that  my  only  es- 
cape from  my  own  sins  is  to  see  them  in  their 
naked  blackness  as  Thou  seest  them,  and  to  turn 
in  revolt  from  them,  asking  Thee  to  bear  them 
for  me  and  remove  them  from  me  forever  I 

jDEHOLD,  a  ladder  set  up  on  the  earth,  and  the 
-'--'  top  of  it  reached  to  heaven :  and  behold,  the 
angels  of  God  ascending  and  descending  on  it.  Gen- 
esis xxviii.  10  to  12. 

So  heaven  and  earth  are  connected,  and  there 
is  free  intercourse  between  them  for  the  messen- 
gers of  God.  That  must  have  been  the  first  im- 
pression made  upon  the  wanderer  that  night  as 
he  watched  in  this  dream  that  was  to  teach  him 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    III 

SO  much.  There  was  nothing  in  Jacob's  dream 
that  is  not  true.  Heaven  and  earth  are  con- 
nected, and  God's  messengers  pass  freely  be- 
tween them.  And  God  asks  me  to  be  one  of 
His  messengers  to-day,  and  to  pass  as  freely 
back  and  forth  between  heaven  and  earth  as 
those  angels  did.  Just  in  so  far  as  I  become 
completely  His  messenger,  with  the  bearing  of 
His  message  and  the  doing  of  His  will  my  whole 
life,  shall  I  know  the  joy  and  freedom  of  this 
heaven  and  earth  intercourse  :  living  and  work- 
ing on  earth,  but  dwelling  all  the  time,  and  con- 
sciously so,  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  find- 
ing the  kingdom  of  heaven  within  me.  Christ 
is  the  secret  of  all  this.  He  has  bridged  the  gulf 
for  me. 

/1ND,  behold,  Jehovah  stood  above  it,  and  said, 
-^^  ,  .  '  In  thee  and  in  thy  seed  shall  all  the 
families  of  the   earth   be   blessed.     Genesis  xxviii. 

Back  of  every  blessing  stands  God.  Because 
of  His  love  and  His  will,  the  sin-caused  gulf  be- 
tween heaven  and  me  has  been  bridged  by  His 
Son.  And  every  word  that  God  speaks  to  me  is 
in  blessing.  If  He  speaks  in  warning  or  in  pun- 
ishment or  in  affliction  it  is  a  blessing ;  but  often- 
est  His  word  to  me  is,  as  it  was  here  to  Jacob,  a 
showering  of  unexpected  good  things  into  my 


1 1 2  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WA  TCH 

life  at  a  time  when  I  have  been  particularly  un- 
deserving. I  go  back  on  Him,  as  Jacob  had 
done,  in  unworthiness  and  failure ;  and  He  heaps 
fresh  privileges  and  responsibihties  upon  me, 
saying  that  He  wants  many  others  to  be  blessed 
through  me !  That  is  how  He  saves  us  all :  by 
showing  confidence  in  me  after  I  have  betrayed 
His  confidence,  by  continuing  to  use  me  after  I 
have  insisted  upon  proving  my  uselessness.  How 
can  we  escape  the  love  of  such  a  heavenly  Fa- 
ther !  Why  should  I  ever  wound  that  love 
again  ? 

yiND,  behold,  I  am  with  thee,  and  will  keep  thee 
-"  whithersoever  thou  goest,  and  will  bring  thee 
again  into  this  land;  for  I  will  not  leave  thee,  until  I 
have  done  that  which  1  have  spoken  to  thee  of.  Gene- 
sis xxviii.  15. 

There  are  days  when  this  assurance  of  our 
heavenly  Father  is  the  most  precious  word  that 
could  come  to  us.  It  came  to  me  on  such  a  day  ; 
oh,  how  I  needed  it  just  then  !  When  we  realize 
that  we  have  forfeited  His  presence,  that  we  have 
proved  our  utter  impotence  to  "  hold  out,"  that 
our  hopes  of  achievement  and  victory  in  His 
service  are  tottering  about  our  heads,  and  every- 
thing looks  black — then  comes  God's  word  to  us 
in  this  message  of  quiet  promise  that  He  made 
to  the  homeless  fugitive  Jacob.     It  is  not  a  ques- 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     II3 

tion  of  what  /  deserve  or  have  forfeited  ;  it  is  not 
a  question  of  my  abiUty  to  hold  out ;  my  achieve- 
ment and  victory  are,  of  course,  utterly  beyond 
me  and  impossible  to  me.  But  all  that  need  not 
trouble  me.  For,  in  Christ,  God  is  still  with  me  ; 
He  will  keep  me  (not  I  Him,  but  He  me)  wher- 
ever I  go ;  He  will  bring  me  back  again  into  His 
Land  of  Promise;  and  He  will  never  leave  me 
until  He  has  brought  to  realization  every  highest 
hope  that  He  has  ever  given  me.  That  is  God's 
word  to  me.  Lord  Jesus,  my  Christ,  it  is  enough. 
Forgive  my  unfaith. 

O  UREL  Y  Jehovah  is  in  this  place  ;  and  I  knew  it 
*^  not.  .  .  .  This  is  none  other  than  the  house 
of  God,  and  this  is  the  gate  of  heaven.  Genesis 
xxviii.  16,  17. 

There  ought  never  to  be  a  moment  of  my 
waking  hours  when  I  should  have  to  make 
Jacob's  confession  as  to  God's  presence :  "  I 
knew  it  not."  We  have  God's  presence  in  a 
richer  way  than  Jacob  ever  knew  it ;  for  Christ 
is  with  us  always,  even  unto  the  end  of  the 
world. 

And  not  only  with  us,  but  within  us.  When 
a  man  passes  from  the  half-way  knowledge  of 
God  that  takes  the  many  passages  in  the  New 
Testament  concerning  "  Christ  in  you  "  as  figura- 
tive, and  awakens  to  the  glorious  fact  that  this 


1 14  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WA  TCH 

truth  is  not  a  figure  of  speech,  but  a  Hteral,  actual 
reahty,  he  begins — if  he  will  meet  the  other  con- 
ditions— to  live  "  the  life  that  is  Christ "  ;  and 
never  after  that  is  he  likely  to  say  of  God's  literal 
presence,  "  I  knew  it  not."  Life  then  is  habitu- 
ally and  perennially  transformed  for  him.  Always 
Jehovah  is  in  this  place.  Everywhere  this  is  none 
other  than  the  house  of  God.  And  Christ  in  us 
makes  of  our  very  lives  the  gate  of  heaven  for  all 
those  into  whose  lives  we  come. 

TF  God  mill  .  .  .  then  .  .  .  /  will. 
-*    .Genesis  xxviii.  18  to  22. 

Poor  Jacob !  Setting  up,  along  with  his  Beth-el 
stone,  a  set  of  conditions  for  God  to  measure  up 
to,  and  then  solemnly  assuring  God  that  if  He 
will  do  His  part  faithfully,  he,  Jacob,  will  do  his 
part,  and  the  stone  shall  become  a  real  memorial 
of  God !  God  asks  us  for  bread,  and  we  give 
Him  a  stone.  He  asks  us  for  the  bread  of  our 
whole  life,  our  entire  living  being,  and  we  offer 
Him  the  stone  of  some  little  concession,  like  a 
tenth  of  our  income,  while  we  keep  nine-tenths 
for  ourselves ! 

To  be  sure,  this  sort  of  close  bargaining,  shrewd- 
eyed,  sharply  conditional,  and  distrustful  of  God 
until  He  had  proved  whether  He  could  and  would 
**  make  good,"  was,  to  be  sure,  all  that  could  be 
expected  of  the  poor,  sin-stained,  lying  supplanter 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    I15 

at  this  stage  of  his  Hfe.  He  had  so  much  to  learn 
yet  of  God ;  and  it  was  a  move  in  the  right  direc- 
tion, though  very  faltering  and  unworthy.  And 
God  met  him  more  than  half-way.  But  we,  in 
our  enlightenment  and  in  the  love  of  Christ, 
never  need  sink  to  the  humiliatingly  low  level  of 
Jacob  in  bargaining  with  God.  We  know  a 
better  way :  "  Seek  yQ  first  the  kingdom  [of  God], 
and  His  righteousness ;  and  all  these  things  shall 
be  added  unto  you."  What  a  joy  and  privilege 
that  we  can  throw  ourselves  unconditionally  upon 
God  in  Christ,  and  find  in  every  stone  in  our  Hfe 
the  house  of  God  ! 

Cp'HEN  Jacob  went  on  his  journey,  and  came  to  the 
-^  land  of  the  children  of  the  east.  And  he  .  .  . 
rolled  the  stone  from  the  well  '5  mouth,  and  watered 
the  flock  of  Laban  his  mother's  brother.  Genesis 
xxix.  I  to  12. 

In  spite  of  Jacob's  shameful  past,  in  spite  of 
his  petty  spirit  in  yet  seeing  so  little  of  God's 
real  nature  and  dealings  with  him,  God  brings 
Jacob  safely  on  his  long  and  perilous  way  and 
leads  him  straight  to  his  goal. 

And  then  Jacob  is  privileged  at  once  to  render 
a  little  service  of  courtesy  and  love.  That  is  the 
way  God  treats  us.  He  brings  us  day  after  day 
to  a  goal  or  journey's  end  that  we  ill  deserve, 
and   continually  lets  us  render  bits  of  wayside 


1 1 6  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  IV A  TCH 

kindness  to  others.  That  is  the  way  He  safe- 
guards and  enriches  our  hves — hves  that  would 
be  so  empty  and  valueless  unless  He  filled  them 
with  Himself,  in  loving,  patient  disregard  of  our 
repeated  failures. 

/I ND  Jacob  served  seven  years  for  Rachel ;  and 
■^'*'  the/ seemed  unio  him  but  a  few  days,  for  the 
love  he  had  to  her.     Genesis  xxix.  13  to  20. 

To  love  is  to  have  such  an  interest  in  life  that 
there  is  no  room  for  any  discontent  or  ennui. 
But  most  of  us  have  yet  to  learn  how  to  love 
those  who  are  really  dearest  to  us,  in  the  way  in 
which  God  loves  and  would  have  us  love.  This 
love  is  so  much  deeper  and  surer  and  steadier 
and  more  interesting  than  merely  the  emotion 
of  love,  or  a  strong  feeling  of  liking ;  and  it  is 
wholly  within  the  power  and  direction  of  the 
God-given  will.  Such  love  just  steadily  lives  and 
spends  itself  for  the  interests  of  the  one  loved ; 
it  sees  the  best  in  that  one  all  the  time,  refusing 
to  notice  or  be  disturbed  by  the  shortcomings  or 
failures.  It  is  sunshine,  and  strength,  and  sym- 
pathy to  the  one  loved,  ceaselessly ;  and,  when 
its  own  feelings  are  hurt,  or  ignored,  or  cruelly 
trampled  upon,  never  by  word  or  look  is  this 
fact  recognized  or  made  known.  It  is  not  pro- 
voked, taketh  not  account  of  evil ;  it  beareth  all 
things,  believeth  all  things,  hopeth  all  things,  en- 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     11/ 

dureth  all  things.  There  is  a  zest  in  life  when 
I  let  Christ  in  me  show  Himself  radiantly 
through  me  in  this  His  kind  of  love.  And  life 
is  empty  and  wearisome  when  I  do  not.  My 
Master,  may  I  yield  ever  greater  obedience  to 
the  call  of  Thy  love  outgoing  from  me  toward 
others ! 

T?IJLFILL  the  week  of  this  one^  and  we  will  give 
-*•  thee  the  other  also  for  the  service  which  thou 
shall  serve  with  me  yet  seven  other  years.  Genesis 
xxix.  21  to  30. 

Jacob  loved  Rachel,  and  had  proved  it  by 
seven  years  of  service ;  and  his  reward  was  in- 
justice and  the  opportunity  of  putting  in  seven 
years'  more  service.  It  was  a  high  tribute  God 
paid  to  this  love  of  Jacob's,  in  that  He  let  it  be 
tested  so  severely ;  and  the  love  stood  the  test. 
If  any  test  can  be  put  upon  you  before  which 
your  love  does  not  hold  out,  then  it  is  not  love 
at  all.  Injustice  is  one  of  the  commonest,  sim- 
plest, and  most  assured  tests  of  our  love.  It  is 
really  a  reward  of  love :  an  invitation  to  love  to 
show  itself  to  be  pure  gold.  And  love  is  the 
one  weapon  against  which  injustice  cannot  for- 
ever hold  out.  Let  me  remember,  then,  these 
two  truths :  if  love  is  really  the  master  of  my 
life,  I  am  assured  of  its  being  tested  by  injus- 
tice,  and   I   should   rejoice   in  the  test;  and  I 


1 18  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WA TCH 

can  always  defeat  injustice  by  more  love — a 
second  seven  years  upon  the  first.  Love  is  as- 
sured of  injustice.  Injustice  is  assured  by  defeat 
of  love. 

nEUBEN  [a  son];  ,  .  .  Simeon  {heard:]; 
-^  .  .  .  Lem  [joined];  .  .  .  Judah 
[praise].     Genesis  xxix.  31  to  35. 

The  marginal  notes,  together  with  the  text, 
explain  why  Leah  named  her  sons  as  she  did. 
Each  was  received  by  her  as  a  token  that  God's 
love  was  going  to  grant  her  her  heart's  desire. 
The  blessing  has  come,  she  has  been  heard,  her 
husband  has  been  joined  to  her  in  the  longed-for 
love,  praise  be  to  God :  these  are  her  expres- 
sions of  faith  and  confidence  before  the  blessing 
itself  had  come  to  pass.  We  are  not  told  just 
what  the  outcome  was  as  to  her  loved  one's  love. 
The  main  thing  was  Leah's  trust  and  confidence 
in  God  in  the  face  of  a  heart-breaking  sorrow. 
Is  it  not  one  of  the  most  beautiful  records  of  such 
trust  in  the  whole  Bible  ? 

And  it  is  just  that  sort  of  undaunted,  invincible 
faith — a  faith  that  is  knowledge — which  God  asks 
us  to  give  Him  to-day,  as  we  pray  in  Christ  for 
anything  that  we  have  reason  to  believe  is  in  ac- 
cordance with  His  will.  He  can  best  answer 
those  prayers  in  which  we  praise  Him  for  the 
answer  long  before  the  answer  appears — yes,  be- 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     II9 

fore  we  have  even  risen  from  our  knees  as  we 
pray.  **  See ;  heard ;  praise ! "  should  be  oftener 
in  our  prayers. 

TDACHEL  envied,  .  .  .  Jacob's  anger  was 
■^^    kindled.     Genesis  xxx.  i  to  8. 

It  is  well  to  look  sin  full  in  the  face,  some- 
times, and  to  see  it  just  as  it  is,  at  its  worst. 
Even  then  we  can  never  see  it  in  as  black  an 
aspect  as  it  appears  to  God,  whom  it  cost  the 
sacrifice  of  His  only  Son  our  Christ.  This  brief 
record  is  all  of  sin  and  its  ongoing  effects.  It 
started  with  the  sin  of  selfishness  and  envy  in 
Rachel.  Her  whining  cry  in  verse  I  is  all  and 
only  selfish.  If  she  had  been  living  all  and  only 
for  her  husband  and  her  sister,  in  selfless  love  and 
in  complete  trust  in  God,  she  never  would  have 
said  those  words. 

Then  comes  Jacob's  sin — of  anger  instead  of 
the  love  that  ought  to  have  saved  his  wife  and 
himself  at  that  crisis.  Because  Rachel  selfishly 
sinned  was  no  reason  for  Jacob  to  sin.  Because 
some  one  is  unjust  to  me  is  no  reason  for  me  to 
be  angry. 

And  finally  comes  the  sin  of  dishonoured 
marriage  because  of  selfishness,  anger,  and  dis- 
trust of  God :  the  story  of  Sarai,  Abram  and 
Hagar  over  again.  That  is  the  way  sin  un- 
checked   piles   up   its   ugly,   loathsome,   death- 


120  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

dealing  work.  And  it  starts  with  any  trifle,  like 
a  feeling  of  envy.  Jesus,  Saviour,  may  I  hate 
and  fear  sin  as  Thou  dost  hate  and  fear  it  for 
me !  And  when  I  have  sinned,  may  I  always 
commit  it  instantly  to  Thee,  in  repentance,  that 
Thou  mayest  blot  it  out  and  stop  its  awful  out- 
working ! 

yJND  God  remembered  Rachel.  .  .  ,  And 
-"  she  .  .  .  bare  a  son :  .  .  .  and  she 
called  his  name  Joseph.     Genesis  xxx.  9  to  24. 

So  now  all  the  envying,  and  discouragement, 
and  bitterness,  and  wrangling  in  the  home,  and 
other  sin,  were  seen  to  be  worse  than  useless. 
In  His  own  good  time  God  sent  the  blessing 
that  He  had  intended  from  the  start.  How 
cheap  and  petty  and  uncalled  for  Rachel's  re- 
bellion and  distrust  look  now  !  Oh,  how  we  all 
need  to  learn  to  trust  and  to  wait !  That  bless- 
ing that  we  have  longed  and  prayed  for  for  years 
has  not  come  yet ;  but  what  of  that  ?  It  is  com- 
ing, if  it  is  in  line  with  God's  will,  and  if  I  will 
let  Him  send  it.  My  discontent  and  rebellion 
and  distrust  only  delay  it,  unfit  me  for  it,  and 
lessen  the  joy  that  God  wants  to  send  me  in 
it.  Suppose  I  stop  now,  forever,  opposing 
my  will  to  His,  and  just  wait  on  the  Lord, 
and  be  of  good  courage,  and  wait,  I  say,  on  the 
Lord. 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     121 

Cr'ARRY:  for  I  have  divined  that  Jehovah  hath 
-^  blessed  me  for  thy  sake.  Genesis  xxx.  25 
to  27. 

No  richer,  deeper  blessing  can  come  into  any 
man's  life  than  that  these  words  should  be  said 
of  him — God  hath  blessed  some  one  for  his  sake. 
And  it  may  be  said  of  you  and  of  me  to-day,  if 
we  will.  It  does  not  call  for  extraordinary  merit, 
nor  for  any  merit  at  all  in  us,  save  the  merit  of 
Christ.  It  calls  simply  for  our  death  :  the  entire 
crucifixion  of  self  and  self's  interests,  that  Christ 
may  Hve  wholly  in  us  and  communicate  Himself 
unrestrictedly  through  us.  He  will  see  to  the 
blessing  of  others  through  us,  gloriously  and 
supernaturally,  if  we  will  simply  get  out  of  the 
way,  as  it  were,  by  not  obtruding  ourselves  be- 
tween Him  and  those  whom  He  would  bless 
through  us.     Don't  forget  Galatians  ii.  20. 

QO  the  feebler  were  LabarCs,  and  the  stronger 
^  Jacob's.  .  .  .  And  Jehovah  said  unto 
Jacob,  Return  unto  the  land  of  thy  fathers  ;  .  .  . 
/  will  be  with  thee.     Genesis  xxx.  28  to  xxxi.  3. 

After  a  record  of  shameful  dishonesty  and 
swollen  selfishness  that  deserves  and  gets  only 
our  contempt,  and  that  dishonoured  God  and 
his  fathers,  Jacob  is  met  by  this  word  from  God  : 
"  I  will  be  with  thee."  When  he  deserved  only 
to  be  repudiated  and  cast  off  forever  by  God, 


122  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

God  suggests  his  leaving  his  present  surround- 
ings and  getting  back  into  the  homeland,  and 
reassuringly  promises  His  presence  and  blessing ! 
Is  that  the  way  Jacob  ought  to  have  been 
treated  ?  Well,  that  is  the  way  God  has  always 
treated  us  when  we  have  gone  down  into  th.e 
depths  of  treason  to  Him  and  His  teachings  ; 
and  why  should  not  Jacob  have  had  as  much  of 
a  chance  as  we  ?  The  fact  is,  Jacob,  hke  our 
selves,  was  so  far  gone  that  nothing  but  God's 
closest  presence  and  richest  blessings  could  save 
him.  And  how  many,  many  times  that  has 
been  true  of  us  !  God  has  blessed  us  so  richly, 
not  because  we  were  so  deserving,  but  because 
we  were  so  wretchedly,  miserably  hopeless  that 
nothing  else  could  save  us.  "  Come  back  home," 
He  says,  "  and  I  will  be  with  you."  What  a 
heavenly  Father  we  have  ! 

fy^E  know  that  with  all  my  power  I  have  served 
^      your  father.     .     .   .    I  am  the  God  of  Beth-el^ 
where  thou  anointedst  a  pillar,  where  thou  vowedst  a 
vow  unto  me.     Genesis  xxxi.  4  to  21. 

Here  is  what  seems  very  much  like  a  straight 
lie  from  Jacob,  talking  about  having  whole- 
heartedly served  Laban  when  he  had  tricked 
him  so  successfully ;  and  alongside  of  the  He  the 
record  of  God's  presence  with  him  !  It  seems 
like  a  puzzling,  inexplicable  life  story,  does  it 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     1 23 

not  ?  Well,  it  is ;  and  almost  as  much  so  as 
yours  and  mine.  In  the  midst  of  our  unworthi- 
ness,  our  dishonours  and  dishonesties  that  are 
worse  than  any  of  Jacob's  in  view  of  our  in- 
finitely greater  light,  is  God,  standing  by  us,  ap- 
pearing to  us,  caUing  and  directing  our  hves, 
and  leading  us  out  of  the  destruction  and  death 
that  we  busily  plan  for  ourselves,  into  the  Prom- 
ised Land  that  we  so  continuously  work  against. 
When  we  would  see  ourselves  as  we  are  and 
God  as  He  is,  let  us  remember  the  strange, 
tangled  story  of  Jacob. 

/f^D  God  came  to  Lab  an  the  Syrian  .  .  .  and 
•^■^     said.     .     .     .     Genesis  xxxi.  22  to  32. 

It  is  not  a  pleasant  story,  this  of  the  rupture 
and  distrust  and  recrimination  between  these  two 
men,  father  and  son,  who  had  entered  into  such 
a  close  and  loving  relationship  twenty  years  be- 
fore, and  who  were  now  ahenated  permanently  from 
each  other  by  the  continued,  long-drawn-out  sin  of 
each.  There  is  just  a  single  bright  spot  in  the 
picture  at  this  stage,  and  it  is  that  God  came  and 
spoke — even  to  the  one  who  knew  Him  least. 

And  that  is  the  brightness  of  our  life  in  the 
midst  of  our  deepest  unworthinesses.  Always 
God  keeps  coming  and  speaking  to  us.  We 
hear  Him,  though  we  often  close  our  ears  to 
Him.     Every  impulse  to  do  better,  every  protest 


124  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

within  us  against  doing  the  unworthy  thing  that 
we  contemplate,  is  God's  personal  presence  and 
spoken  word  just  as  plainly  as  were  His  Old 
Testament  visitations.  Father,  give  me  an 
infinitely  greater  sensitiveness  to  Thy  presence 
and  Thy  word  through  instant  and  habitual 
obedience  to  all  that  Thou  sayest! 

'PXCEPT  the  God  of  my  father  ,  .  .  had 
■^--^  been  ivith  me,  surely  now  hadst  thou  sent  me 
away  empty.     Genesis  xxxi.  33  to  42. 

Though  Jacob  was  speaking  in  a  burst  of  self- 
righteous  and  unjustified  indignation,  he  never- 
theless spoke  a  truth  that  we  need  to  remember 
every  day  of  our  lives.  It  is  because,  and  only 
because,  God  is  with  us,  that  our  lives  receive 
anything  that  is  worth  while.  We  cannot  go  to 
too  great  an  extreme  in  recognizing  God  as  the 
sole  cause  of  everything  good  that  comes  to  us. 
A  man  is  in  a  dangerous  way  who  says,  for  ex- 
ample, "  This,  God  gave  me ;  but  that,  I  got  for 
myself."  If  "  that  "  is  anything  but  sin,  then 
God  gave  it  to  him.  There  is  nothing  of  good  in 
our  lives  except  God.  How  our  lives  will  enrich 
and  deepen  as  we  practice  the  presence  of  God  ! 

TlyTIZPAH,  .  .  .  God  is  witness  betwixt  me 
^^-^  and  thee.  .  .  .  God  .  .  .  judge 
betwixt  us.    Genesis  xxxi.  43  to  55. 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    12$ 

The  need  of  all  Mizpah-covenants  passes  when 
Jesus  Christ  comes  into  a  life.  It  is  true  that 
"  Mizpah  "  has  been  made  a  Christian  watch- 
word, but  only  by  giving  it  an  entirely  different 
sense  from  that  in  which  Jacob  and  Laban, 
mutually  distrustful,  selfish,  unloving  and  envi- 
ous, used  it.  With  them  it  was  simply  a  truce, 
an  agreement  to  keep  the  peace  and  do  the  right 
thing.  When  Christ  enters  our  life,  no  one  need 
ask  us  to  promise  to  keep  the  peace.  It  is  our 
privilege  so  to  live  in  Him,  and  to  let  Him  live 
in  and  through  us,  that  others  will  want  us  to  be 
near  them  because  of  the  peace  and  joy  and 
power  that  our  life  brings  them. 

/JND  Jacob  went  on  his  way  and  the  angels  of 
-"      God  met  him.     Genesis  xxxii.  i,  2. 

And  there  are  angels  of  God  waiting  for  me 
to-day,  or  holding  themselves  in  readiness  to 
meet  me,  in  order  to  smooth  the  way,  and  over- 
come difficulties,  and  accompany  me,  and  bring 
to  pass  things  that  I  could  never  do  of  myself. 
Jacob  was  nearing  a  great  crisis  of  his  hfe :  the 
meeting  again  of  his  brother  Esau.  We  are  not 
told  what  the  angels  did  for  Jacob;  it  is  not 
necessary ;  they  met  him,  that  is  enough.  God 
never  asks  us  to  enter  upon  any  difficulty  alone. 
His  own  Son  Christ  dwells  within  us ;  and  His 
appointed  messengers.  His  angels,  meet  and  ac- 


126  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

company  us  to  work  with  us.     Surely  there  is 
nothing  for  me  to  fear  to-day  ! 


CT^HEN  Jacob  mas  greatly  afraid.     .     .     .     And 

-^      Jacob  said,  O  God,     ,     .     .     lam  not  worthy 

of  the  least  of  all  \thy'\  loving-kindnesses.     .     .     . 

And  thou  saidst,  I  mil  surely  do  thee  good.     Genesis 

xxxii.  3  to  12. 

When  we  are  confronted  with  disaster  from 
which  there  seems  to  be  no  escape,  Jacob's 
prayer  is  a  good  one  to  remember :  to  confess 
our  utter  unworthiness  of  anything  but  the  disaster 
that  threatens,  especially  of  all  the  wonderful 
loving-kindness  with  which  God  has  already 
"  crowded  and  crowned  "  our  hfe ;  and  then  re- 
mind ourselves  of  God's  promises  to  us, — un- 
deserved but  nevertheless  given  and  backed  by 
God's  word,  by  God  Himself — and  clazm  those 
promises  against  the  immediately  threatening 
future,  knowing  that  the  rich  past  is  only  an 
earnest  of  the  richer  future.  When  God's  pledged 
word  is  the  only  hope  we  have,  what  a  hope 
it  is  I 

fpOR  with  my  staff  I  passed  over  this  Jordan;  and 
-'■  now  I  am  become  two  companies.  Genesis 
xxxii.  lo. 

For  every  one  who  has  made  any  pretense 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     12/ 

whatsoever  of  really  serving  God,  as  Jacob  even 
in  his  primitive  and  all  too  faulty  way  had  done, 
the  backward  look  over  life  will  show  that  the 
"staff"  has  become  "two  companies":  the 
meagre  start  has  grown  and  multiplied  and  en- 
riched into  an  abundance  that  is  all  of  God — not 
necessarily  our  bank  account,  but  the  other  bless- 
ings of  life  that  are  worth  so  much  more  than 
that.  Jacob's  staff  at  the  start  had  been,  after 
all,  something  better  than  his  walking-stick.  It 
had  been  Isaac's  parting  word  to  him :  "  God 
Almighty  bless  thee  .  .  .  that  thou  mayest 
be  a  company  of  peoples  "  (xxviii.  3)  ;  and  it  had 
been  God's  own  word  to  him  at  Beth-el :  **  I  am 
with  thee,  and  will  keep  thee  whithersoever  thou 
goest " ;  and  Jacob  had  laid  hold  of  this  staff 
when  he  had  made  his  half-doubting,  unworthily 
selfish,  but  sincere  covenant  with  God  at  Beth-el. 
So  the  staff  had  grown  into  unthought-of  full- 
ness. When  our  Shepherd  God  asks  us  to  say, 
"  Thy  rod  and  thy  staff,  they  comfort  me,"  He 
means  it. 

T  WILL  appease  him  ivith  the  present  that  goeth 
-*  before  me,  and  afterward  I  will  see  his  face ; 
peradventure  he  will  accept  me.  Genesis  xxxii. 
13  to  21. 

How  the  trembling,  eager  fearfulness  of  Jacob 
on  meeting  the  elder  brother  whom  he  had  so 


128  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

flagrantly  wronged,  stands  out  in  contrast  with 
the  way  in  which  we  are  invited  to  meet  the 
Elder  Brother  whom  we  have  so  flagrantly 
wronged !  Jacob  made  these  costly  gifts  as  a 
desperate  chance  against  death;  our  wronged 
Elder  Brother's  message,  sent  to  meet  us,  is  :  "I 
am  come  that  ye  might  have  life,  and  that  ye 
might  have  it  more  abundantly."  Have  we 
taken  Him  at  His  word,  and  entered  unreserv- 
edly into  the  very  fullness  of  the  Hfe  that  is 
Christ  ? 

yjND  Jacob  was  left  alone  ;  and  there  wrestled  a 
■^■^  man  with  him.  .  .  .  And  when  he  saw 
that  he  prevailed  not  against  him^  he  touched  the  hol- 
low of  his  thigh.  .  .  .  And  he  said,  I  will  not 
let  thee  go,  except  thou  bless  me.  Genesis  xxxii. 
22  to  32. 

Professor  Willis  J.  Beecher  has  pointed  out 
that  Jacob's  new  blessing  and  change  of  name 
came  only  after  he  had  yielded  to  God  and 
ceased  to  resist  and  struggle  against  Him.  He 
had  now,  for  the  first  time,  acknowledged  Esau 
as  his  superior ;  and  he  evidently  gave  up  the 
wrestling-match  after  he  went  down  in  a  helpless 
heap  before  that  fiery  touch  on  his  thigh.  His 
"  prevaihng "  was  in  the  fact  that  he  held  on 
after  he  had  yielded  and  surrendered,  and  in- 
sisted on  claiming  the  blessing  that  God  has  for 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     1 29 

those  who  go  down  in  confessed  helplessness  be- 
fore Him.  Praise  God  for  such  times  of  solitary- 
wrestling,  surrender,  and  blessing  !  They  mark 
great  mountain  peak  times  in  our  spiritual  life, 
when  our  very  name  and  being  is  changed  in 
Christ.  If  you  are  conscious  of  the  lack  of  some 
great  spiritual  blessing  is  it  because  you  have 
not  wrestled  your  problem  through  to  the  finish 
of  complete  surrender  and  then  confidently 
claimed  the  blessing  of  the  one  who  prevails 
with  God  by  giving  up  all  to  God  ? 

/JND  Jacob  lifted  up  his  eyes  and  looked^  and, 
-^^  behold  Esau  was  coming,  and  with  him  four 
hundred  men.  .  .  .  And  Esau  ran  to  meet  him, 
and  embraced  him,  and  fell  on  his  neck  and  kissed 
him  :  and  they  wept.     Genesis  xxxiii.  i  to  4. 

And  so  the  great,  black  trouble  and  catas- 
trophe of  his  life  had  arrived  !  This  was  what 
Jacob  had  been  dreading  and  praying  against  so 
desperately.  This  was  what  his  elaborate  plans 
of  strategy,  in  dividing  his  company  and  putting 
forward  those  for  whom  he  cared  the  least,  had 
tried  to  avert  or  mitigate.  The  catastrophe  had 
struck.  The  blow  had  fallen.  The  storm  had 
broken  over  him  in  all  its  fury.  Oh,  how  we 
need  to  take  this  lesson  to  heart !  How  we 
dread,  and  dodge,  and  agonize  over  God's  plans 
for  our  enrichment  and  blessing,  just  because  to 


130  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

lis  they  seem,  in  the  distance,  to  be  troubles  ! 
"  All  things  work  together  for  good  "  to  them 
that  love  Him. 


*'  Ye  fearful  saints,  fresh  courage  take. 
The  clouds  ye  so  much  dread 
Are  big  with  mercy,  and  shall  break 
In  blessings  o'er  your  head." 


//ND  Jacob  came  in  peace.  Genesis  xxxiii. 
-"     5  to  20. 

Instead  of  the  war  and  bloodshed  and  death 
that  he  had  feared  for  his  dear  ones  and  himself, 
this  was  the  result.  The  whole  picture  is  one  of 
peace,  and  love,  and  good  will,  mutual  trust  and 
mutual  service.  It  was  the  relationship  between 
the  two  brothers  that  might  have  been,  and  that 
God  wanted,  twenty  years  earlier.  But  it  was 
none  the  less  blessed  when  it  did  come,  even 
though  so  long  delayed.  That  is  the  wonderful 
thing  about  love ;  it  is  open  to  us  always,  at  any 
time,  to  enter  fully  into  its  blessings,  and  peace, 
and  joy.  When  it  is  permanently  on  the  throne 
of  our  life,  the  whole  life  is  one  of  peace.  We 
have  cheated  ourselves  and  others  of  its  bless- 
ings, have  we  not?  But  we  can  claim  all  its 
blessings  to-day,  and  come  in  peace  to  the  end 
of  the  day. 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     131 

T  ET  us  arise^  and  go  up  to  Beih-el;  and  I  will 
-^— '  make  there  an  altar  unto  God,  who  answered 
me  in  the  day  of  my  distress.  .  .  .  And  he  built 
there  an  altar,  .  .  .  because  there  God  was  re- 
vealed unto  him.     Genesis  xxxv.  i  to  8. 

The  memory  of  our  Beth-els  is  the  most 
precious,  blessed  memory  of  our  lives.  God 
wants  us  to  go  back  there,  and  rejoice  in  the 
memory  of  the  wonderful  way  in  which,  when 
we  were  in  distress,  He  revealed  Himself  unto  us. 
It  has  been  said  that  "  the  way  of  advance  is  the 
way  of  remembrance."  Think  to-day  of  the 
highest  mountain  peak  of  experience  of  God  that 
you  have  ever  known ;  then  praise  Him  for  it, 
rejoice  that  you  may  have  it  renewed  to-day, 
and  know  that  your  normal,  every-day  hfe  in 
Christ  may  now  be  better  and  higher  than  the 
best  Beth-el  that  your  past  has  ever  known. 
That  is  the  power  and  will  of  our  God. 

y/^D  God  appeared  unto  Jacob  again.  .  .  . 
-^^  Thy  name  shall  not  be  called  any  more  Jacob, 
but  Israel  shall  be  thy  name.     Genesis  xxxv.  9,  10. 

We  need  God's  reminders.  God  had  told 
Jacob  this  once ;  and  now  He  lovingly  reminds 
him  of  it  again.  It  was  the  greatest  day  of 
Jacob's  hfe  when,  after  that  fruitless  struggle  that 
culminated  his  lifelong  resistance  against  God, 
he   finally   surrendered   his  will,   claimed  God's 


132  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

blessing,  and  his  name  was  changed  from  "  Sup- 
planter  "  to  "  God  striveth."  That  one  day  was 
worth  all  the  rest  of  his  hfe  before  it.  But  it 
would  be  worth  Uttle  now  unless  his  constant 
memory  of  it  continued  to  direct  and  control  his 
hfe.  So  God  reminds  him  that  he  is  a  new  man, 
with  a  new  name  and  a  new  work  to  do  in  the 
world.  And  God  would  remind  me  this  morn- 
ing of  that  day  of  highest  mountain-peak  privi- 
lege when  I  first  came  to  know  Him  better.  My 
own  mere  memory  will  not  avail,  either,  so  God 
Himself  speaks  to  me  again.  Father,  I  thank 
Thee  for  Thy  fresh  gifts  of  the  best  things  in  my 
past. 

^ATD  God  said  unto  him,  I  am  God  Almighty : 
•^^  ...  a  nation  and  a  company  of  nations 
shall  be  of  thee.     Genesis  xxxv.  ii  to  15. 

Never  to  any  other  people  were  such  promises 
made  as  to  the  Jews ;  and  never  have  there  been 
any  other  such  people  as  the  Jews.  Set  apart  as 
God's  own  chosen  people  for  a  blessing  to  the 
whole  world,  they  have  continued  set  apart,  a 
peculiar  and  chosen  people.  Found  in  almost 
every  nation  in  the  world  as  a  distinct  part  within 
that  nation,  they  are  indeed  "  a  nation  and  a 
company  of  nations."  Above  all  other  peoples 
they  challenge  and  deserve  our  admiration,  grati- 
tude and  love.     To  their  great  Son,  Jesus  Christ, 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    1 33 

the  world  owes  more  than  to  any  man,  or  to  all 
men,  for  Son  of  Man,  and  more  than  man,  He 
has  saved  the  world,  and  is,  in  irresistibly  in- 
creasing power  and  triumph,  its  Light  and  Life. 
And  He  was  a  Jew.  May  I  never  dishonour 
and  wound  Him  by  any  unworthy  thought  or 
word  or  act  against  His  people  and  the  people 
of  God ! 

QHE  called  his  name  Ben-oni  [the  son  of  my  sor- 
row'] :  but  his  father  called  him  Benjamin  [the 
son  of  the  right  hand"].     Genesis  xxxv.  16  to  21. 

The  sorrow  and  suffering  that  cost  Rachel  her 
life  became  to  the  one  she  loved  most  his  right 
hand  of  comfort  and  strength.  That  is  exactly 
what  God  would  have  me  do,  or  let  Him  do, 
with  every  sorrow  and  suffering  that  comes  into 
my  life.  Its  purpose  is  not  to  break  down,  but 
to  lift  up.  If  I  see  in  it  only  an  expression  of 
God's  love,  as  it  is,  every  experience  of  suffering 
may  be  turned  into  a  strengthening  right  hand 
for  others  and  for  myself.  I  am  not  above  my 
Master :  and  He,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  became 
through  His  sorrow  and  suffering  unto  death  the 
Right  Hand  of  all  humanity.  Many  another, 
following  in  His  footsteps  and  in  His  strength, 
has,  by  life  laid  down,  lifted  many  up.  Every 
one  is  offered  this  highest  privilege,  which  was 
also  Christ's. 


134  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

"  He  suffered  so, — rebuff  and  wrong 

And  sickness, — that  he  cried,  *  'Tis  vain 
To  urge  :  *'  Be  ever  brave  and  strong  !  " 

'Tis  false  to  say,  *'  It's  worth  the  strain, 
For  guardian  angels  watch  o'er  men 
And  always  help  !  "  '    He  knew  not  then 
His  guardian  angel's  name  was  Pain." 


/JND  Isaac  .  .  .  died :  .  .  .  and  Esau 
-"  and  Jacob  his  sons  buried  him.  Genesis  xxxv. 
23  to  29. 

God  was  good  to  these  two  men  to  let  them 
come  together  again  as  brothers  and  sons  of  the 
same  father,  and  care  for  him  in  his  final  Home- 
going.  There  had  been  a  time  when  the 
treachery  and  murderous  hatred  between  them 
seemed  to  make  such  a  reunion  forever  impos- 
sible ;  when  Esau,  thinking  that  his  father's  death 
was  near  at  hand,  had  said  :  "  The  days  of  mourn- 
ing for  my  father  are  at  hand ;  then  will  I  slay 
my  brother  Jacob."  That  was  past  now;  and  it 
was  past,  not  because  years  had  elapsed,  but  be- 
cause Jacob  had  yielded  up  absolutely  to  the 
will  of  God,  and  had  given  his  brother  first  place. 
"  Love  never  faileth."  The  will  of  God  is  love, 
for  God  is  love.  There  is  no  estrangement  or 
enmity  or  bitterness  in  our  hfe  that  cannot  be 
forever  done  away  with  by  love — God's  love 
working  through  us.  It  makes  no  difference 
whether     the     other    one    meets    us    half-way 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     1 35 

or     not :     we    can  go    the   whole  way.      But 

only   in   the   power  of   Christ,  who   yielded  up 

all  that  He  had,  in  His  love  for  us,  can  we  do 
this. 

cr'HE  generations  of  Esau  (the  same  is  Edom). 

■^  Esau  took  his  wives  of  the  daughters  of 
Canaan ;  .  .  .  and  .  .  .  Ishmaels  daugh- 
ter.    Genesis  xxxvi.  i  to  43. 

Not  a  very  interesting  chapter  to  start  the  day 
with,  is  it  ?  But  one  fact  of  absorbing  interest 
stands  out :  that  this  is  a  record  of  the  far-reach- 
ing ongoing  effects  and  results  of  sin.  Esau 
tried  to  establish  a  family  by  taking  as  wives  the 
daughters  of  Canaan,  idolatrous,  who  knew  not 
God ;  and  a  daughter  of  Ishmael,  the  son  of 
Abraham's  distrustful,  God-doubting  marriage 
with  the  Egyptian  Hagar.  The  people  of  Edom 
were  the  result ;  and  they  come  into  the  history 
later  on  as  blocking  and  opposing  the  chosen 
people  of  God,  and  at  warfare  with  them,  just  as 
Esau  and  Abraham  blocked  and  opposed  God  in 
giving  rise  to  the  new  nation.  The  ongoing 
effects  of  our  sin  are  unthinkable  and  awful  be- 
yond words.  That  they  extend  to  the  third  and 
fourth  generation  is  sober,  literal  fact,  not  a  figure 
of  speech.  But  Jesus  Christ  who  is  our  life  can 
break  the  power  of  sin  and  annihilate  it,  when 
we  let  Him.     Better  still,  He  can  keep  us  from 


136  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

sin — stop  a  sin  before  it  comes  into  existence. 
If  I  will  commit  myself  and  this  day  to  His 
mastery,  it  need  not  be  a  day  like  "  Esau,  the 
father  of  the  Edomites." 


AND  Jacob  dwelt  in  the  land  of  his  father's  so- 
•^^     journings.     Genesis  xxxvii.  i. 

That  was  the  land  that  God  had  given  his 
father,  and  his  father  before  him.  If  we  have 
had  fathers  to  whom  God  and  God's  promises 
were  their  richest  possession,  we  shall  do  well  to 
dwell  in  the  land  of  our  fathers'  sojournings.  We 
do  not  need  to  improve  on  their  experience  of 
God  and  discover  new  and  better  religious  terri- 
tory to  live  in.  Esau  moved  into  new  country, 
in  more  ways  than  one  :  his  descendants  became 
the  enemies  of  God's  people.  Jacob  held  to  the 
old  place  and  the  old  ways  ;  his  Descendant  was 
Jesus  Christ.  Our  fathers  for  nineteen  centuries 
have  been  finding  that  to  sojourn  in  the  fertile 
land  of  New  Testament  Christianity  is  sufficient 
for  all  their  needs  ;  we  may  safely  dwell  there. 
The  best  part  of  it  is,  this  old  home-country  of 
Hfe  in  Christ  is  always  new.  Not  one  ten-thou- 
sandth part  of  its  reach  and  riches  has  been  ex- 
plored and  discovered  yet.  But  it  is  all  ours, 
now  and  forever,  if  we  really  sojourn  in  *'  the  life 
that  is  Christ." 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     1 3/ 

7i  TOW  Israel  loped  Joseph.  .  .  .  And  Joseph 
-^  ^  dreamed  a  dream,  and  he  told  it  to  his  breth- 
ren: and  they  hated  him  yet  the  more.  Genesis 
xxxvii.  2  to  II. 

God's  giving  me  lavishly  of  His  best  gifts  does 
not  carry  with  it  any  guarantee  against  my  abus- 
ing and  doing  harm  with  them.  God  had  chosen 
Joseph  for  a  marked  career,  and  was  helping  him 
to  reaHze  this.  Joseph  took  the  evidences  of 
the  promised  blessing,  and  did  the  best  he  could 
to  wreck  everything  with  them.  His  prompt 
telling  of  his  dreams  to  his  family  seems  to  have 
been  the  height  of  self-centered  folly.  It  could 
do  no  good ;  it  worked  out  in  their  great  sin, 
which  God  mercifully  overruled  for  good  to 
them  all.  So  we  all  act,  sometimes,  when  God 
is  lavishly  blessing  us.  Father,  may  I  be  only 
humbled  by  Thy  blessings,  and  yield  myself  in 
completer  obedience  to  Thy  will !  Keep  me 
from  using  Thy  goodness  to  do  ill  with,  as  I 
have  done  so  many  times  before. 

f^O  now,  see  whether  it  is  well  ivith  thy  brethren, 
^-^  and  well  ivith  the  flock:  and  bring  me  word 
again.  .  .  .  And  Joseph  went  after  his  brethren, 
and  found  them.     Genesis  xxxvii.  12  to  17. 

He  was  sent  on  a  difficult  and  dangerous 
journey  to  look  after  the  welfare  of  the  men  who 
hated  him.     That  would  not  strike  most  of  us  as 


138  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

being  a  very  desirable,  or  even  necessary,  thing 
to  do.  Yet  it  is  exactly  what  we  must  be  willing 
to  do  if  we  have  a  real  desire  to  let  Christ  live 
His  life  in  us.  It  is  what  He  did.  He  was  sent 
by  His  Father  to  earth  to  see  whether  it  was 
well  with  His  brethren,  God's  chosen  people  the 
Jews,  and  with  the  flock  entrusted  to  their  care, 
which  was  the  whole  world  that  they  were  to 
bless.  They  hated  Jesus ;  but  He  went  after  His 
brethren,  and  found  them  ;  and  the  mission  cost 
Him  His  hfe.  Joseph  did  the  same,  and  his 
mission  virtually  cost  him  his  life,  so  far  as  his 
brothers'  intention  toward  him  was  concerned. 
But  Jesus  and  Joseph  lived  to  save  their  breth- 
ren; and  so  shall  we,  if  we  are  as  obedient  to 
God's  commission  to  lay  down  our  life  for  those 
who  hate  us.  It  is  pretty  high  privilege  to  walk 
to-day  in  the  footsteps  of  Jesus  and  Joseph. 

cr'HEY  conspired  against  him  to  slay  him.    ,    .    . 

-^  We  shall  see  what  will  become  of  his  dreams. 
.  .  .  They  took  him,  and  cast  him  into  the  pit. 
Genesis  xxxvii.  18  to  24. 

It  was  pretty  severe  treatment  for  young 
Joseph — deadly  cruelty,  with  bitter,  hateful  con- 
tempt !  Yet  God  was  even  then  preparing  to 
use  him  to  turn  the  cruelty  and  hatred  of  these 
brothers,  through  the  alchemy  of  his  virtue  and 
love,  into  a  means  of  saving  their  lives  and  bless- 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     1 39 

ing  them  beyond  their  richest  imagination.  That 
is  what  God  would  do,  through  me,  for  every  one 
who  ever  treats  me  with  hatred  or  injustice.  I 
am  not  Hkely  to  be  as  badly  treated  as  Joseph 
was.  But  I  have  often  made  as  much  fuss  over 
my  Httle  ill-treatments  as  though  I  had  been. 
God  wants  to  change  all  this,  and  to  turn  every 
such  ill-treatment  into  a  means  of  rich  blessing 
toward  my  evil-doers  through  Christ's  mastery 
over  me.  /  cannot  do  this  ;  but  Christ  in  me 
can.  Shall  I  not  welcome  injustice,  hereafter,  as 
Christ's  special  opportunity  to  show  what  He  can 
do  through  me  for  others  ? 

TOEHOLD,  a  caravan  of  Ishmaelites,  .  .  . 
-^  And  they  brought  Joseph  into  Egypt.  Genesis 
xxxvii.  25  to  28. 

The  Ishmaelites  were  descendants  of  the  sin 
of  Abraham,  founder  of  the  family  of  Joseph's 
brethren.  That  sin  of  their  father  passed  by 
and  offered  inviting  opportunity  to  fresh  sin, 
which  they  accepted.  Yet  to  Joseph,  who  was 
doing  God's  will,  both  the  old  sin  of  the  Ishmael- 
ites and  the  new  sin  of  his  brothers'  sale  simply 
carried  him  forward  into  the  blessings  that  God 
was  preparing  for  him.  What  a  lesson  this  is  to 
me  !  My  old  sins  are  ready  to  appear,  like  haunt- 
ing ghosts,  whenever  I  yield  to  sin  ;  and  they 
will  work  with  the  new  sin  to  multiply  it.     But 


140  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

both  old  sins  and  new  can  be  made  by  God  to 
yield  treasures  of  blessing  if  I  put  myself  abso- 
lutely into  His  keeping  in  surrender  to  His  will. 
Yet  only  as  I  turn  eternally  against  all  sin,  in 
Christ,  can  He  make  stepping-stones  of  my  old 
sins  for  me. 

TT  iz  my  son's  coat ;  an  evil  beast  hath  devoured 
-*  him.  .  .  .  And  the  Midianites  sold  him  into 
Egypt.     Genesis  xxxvii.  29  to  36. 

The  greatest  tragedy  in  the  life  of  Jacob  the 
father  and  Joseph  the  son  became,  under  God, 
one  of  the  greatest  blessings  of  their  lives.  They 
could  not  know  this  at  the  time,  or  see  it,  or 
imagine  it.  Nevertheless,  it  was  so,  and  it  will 
be  so — not  may  be,  but  will  be — in  the  case  of 
every  black  sorrow  of  our  lives  that  comes  to  us 
from  others,  z/we  live  in  God's  will.  The  worst 
results  of  the  sins  of  others  hurled  against  us  can- 
not alter  this  eternal  rule  of  God's  made  in  our 
behalf:  "  We  know  that  to  them  that  love  God 
all  things  work  together  for  good."  This  means 
that,  if  we  really  believe  His  word  and  trust  Him, 
we  shall  praise  Him  and  rejoice  while  the  clouds 
are  blackest  about  us. 

^TVD  Jehovah  was  with  Joseph.  .  .  .  Je- 
-^■^  hovah  blessed  the  Egyptians  house  for  Joseph's 
sake.  .  .  .  And  he  left  all  that  he  had  in 
Joseph's  hand.     Genesis  xxxix.  i  to  6. 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    I4I 

That  is  the  sort  of  reward  God  offers  me  if  I 
will  serve  Him  to  the  limit.  And  people  talk 
about  how  much  they  have  to  "  give  up "  by- 
going  in  for  the  Christian  Hfe.  The  trouble  with 
so  many  is  that  they  have  not  the  "  nerve " — 
the  Bible  calls  it  "  faith  " — to  surrender  them- 
selves absolutely  to  God's  will ;  and  so  they  lose, 
both  the  best  things  He  would  give  them  and  the 
things  of  the  world  which  still  look  good  to  them 
because  of  their  half-way  surrender.  Complete 
service  of  God  means  the  three  things  that 
Joseph  had  :  God  Himself  with  us,  all  His  re- 
sources ours  ;  other  people  supernaturally  blessed 
because  of  our  life — that  is,  we  are  a  channel  of 
God's  love  into  their  lives  ;  and  the  trust  and  re- 
spect of  our  fellows — everything  coming  our 
way,  in  other  words.  This  is  always  so,  in  the 
long  run,  even  if  it  seems  to  be  pretty  badly 
broken  into  for  a  while,  as  it  was  with 
Joseph. 

TJflS  master's  wife  cast  her  eyes  upon  Joseph, 
-^^  .  .  .  Behold,  my  master  .  .  .  hath 
pat  all  that  he  hath  into  my  hand  :  .  .  .  hoiv 
then  can  I  do  this  great  wickedness,  and  sin  against 
God)  .  .  .  And  he  ,  .  .  fled,  and  got 
him  oat.     Genesis  xxxix.  7  to  12. 

If  a  man  will,  on  his  knees,  ask  Christ  to  reveal 
Himself  to  him  in  this  story,  he  will  find  in  it 


142  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WA  TCH 

one  of  the  most  glorious  revelations  of  the  power 
and  purity  of  Christ  that  the  Bible  offers.  Jesus 
said,  '*  Before  Abraham  was,  I  am  "  ;  and  it  must 
have  been  He  who  led  Abraham's  son,  Joseph, 
in  triumph  through  these  onslaughts  of  hell. 
Christ  can  do  the  same  for  men  and  boys,  for 
women  and  girls,  to-day  against  this  sin  which, 
because  it  is  a  degrading  of  the  most  Godlike 
powers  of  humanity,  has  in  it  more  of  hell  than 
any  other  sin  that  Satan  in  the  councils  of  hell 
ever  devised.  God,  who  is  love,  so  loved  us 
that  He  gave  us  His  only  begotten  Son,  Jesus 
Christ,  to  be  our  whole  life ;  and  with  Him  He 
has  "  freely  given  us  all  things."  My  Master 
hath  put  all  that  He  hath  into  my  hand.  Shall 
I  traduce  Him,  wound  and  crucify  Him,  by  tak- 
ing this  hell  that  Satan  offers  me  into  the  life  that 
Christ  has  trusted  with  all  that  He  has  ?  No : 
the  victory  that  Jesus  Christ  gave  to  Joseph  He 
gives  to  you  and  to  me.  How  the  music  of  the 
hosts  of  heaven  must  have  surged  up  and  down 
the  courts  of  heaven  that  day  when  Joseph,  the 
clean-lived  young  Hebrew  of  Jesus'  own  race, 
gave  Christ  the  mastery  of  his  life,  and  Satan 
slunk  back  into  hell  cowering  and  utterly  de- 
feated, doomed  to  the  second  death  which  shall 
some  day  put  an  eternal  end  to  Satan's  futile  and 
impotent  attacks  upon  Christ  and  all  those  who 
live  in  Christ. 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     I43 

/f  ND  Joseph's  master  took  him,  and  put  him  into 
•^^  the  prison.  .  .  .  But  Jehovah  was  with 
Joseph;  .  .  .  and  that  which  he  did,  Jehovah 
made  it  to  prosper.     Genesis  xxxix.  13  to  23. 

When  God  lets  us  go  to  prison  because  we  have 
been  serving  Him,  and  goes  there  with  us,  prison 
is  about  the  most  blessed  place  in  the  world  that 
we  could  be  in.  Joseph  seems  to  have  known 
that.  He  did  not  sulk  and  grow  discouraged  and 
rebellious  because  "  everything  has  gone  to  the 
dogs,  and  it  doesn't  pay  to  do  right,  anyway." 
If  he  had,  the  prison-keeper  would  never  have 
trusted  him  so.  Joseph  does  not  even  seem  to 
have  pitied  himself;  let  us  remember  that  if  self- 
pity  is  allowed  to  set  in,  that  is  the  end  of  us — 
until  it  is  cast  out  utterly  from  us.  Joseph  just 
turned  over  everything  in  joyous  trust  to  God, 
and  so  the  keeper  of  the  prison  turned  over 
everything  to  Joseph.  Lord  Jesus,  when  the 
prison  doors  close  in  on  me,  keep  me  trusting, 
and  keep  my  joy  full  and  abounding.  Prosper 
Thy  work  through  me  in  prison;  even  there, 
make  me  free  indeed. 


rrrHEREFORE  lookye  so  sadto-dayl  .  .  . 
'^^  Do  not  interpretations  belong  to  God )  tell  it 
me,  I  pray  you.     Genesis  xl.  i  to  8. 

Joseph  made  it  his  personal  business  to  share 
with  God  the  burdens  of  those  near  him,  and  to 


144  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

cheer  and  comfort  them  if  he  could.  That  morn- 
ing greeting  of  his  was  probably  radiant  with 
contagious  sunshine.  It  is  a  good  way  to  begin 
the  day.  If  we  see  others  depressed  or  dis- 
couraged, let  us  shine  only  the  more  brightly 
with  the  love  of  Christ  into  their  lives,  and  assure 
them,  if  we  can,  that  God  is  equal  to  the  present 
need,  whatever  it  may  be. 

/JNI^  Joseph  said  unto  him,  This  is  the  interpre- 
'^  tation  of  it.  .  .  .  Yet  did  not  the  chief 
butler  remember  Joseph,  but  forgat  him.  Genesis 
xl.  9  to  23. 

God  assures  two  things  to  those  who  are  in 
Christ :  because  Christ  is  "  the  Truth,"  we  shall 
in  Him  find  all  truth  that  we  need  to  know.  He 
is  the  Interpreter  and  the  Interpretation  of  all 
our  life,  of  all  our  problems  ;  and  through  us  He 
will  solve  the  riddle  of  others'  lives  and  lead 
them  into  "the  truth" — which  is  Himself. 
And  we  are  also  to  share  Christ's  own  ex- 
perience of  being  forgotten  or  even  injured 
by  the  very  persons  whom  we  have  loved  and 
served.  Joseph  had  that  privilege ;  so  shall 
we.  But  if  we  are  filled  and  mastered  by  the 
deathless,  dynamic  love  of  Jesus  Christ,  that 
love  working  in  us  and  through  us  toward  others 
will  not  be  even  disturbed  by  their  treatment 
of  us. 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     145 

/fND  the  ill-favoured  and  lean-fleshed  kine  did 
•^  eat  up  the  seven  iv ell-favoured  and  fat  kine. 
.  .  .  And  the  thin  ears  swallowed  up  the  seven 
rank  and  full  ears.     Genesis  xli.  i  to  8. 

There  is  a  warning  for  us  in  that  dream,  just 
as  it  stands.  It  is  possible  for  the  best  years  of 
our  life,  the  best  experiences,  the  best  victories 
won,  and  the  best  service  rendered,  to  be  swal- 
lowed up  by  times  of  failure,  defeat,  dishonour, 
uselessness  in  the  kingdom.  Some  men's  lives 
of  rare  promise  and  rare  achievement  have  ended 
so.  It  is  awful  to  think  of;  but  it  is  true.  Yet  it 
is  never  necessary. 

S.  D.  Gordon  has  said  that  the  only  assurance 
of  safety  against  this  tragedy  is  "  fresh  touch  with 
God,"  daily,  hourly.  The  blessed,  fruitful,  victo- 
rious experiences  of  yesterday  are  not  only  of  no 
value  to  me  to-day,  but  they  will  actually  be 
eaten  up  or  reversed  by  to-day's  failures,  unless 
they  serve  as  incentives  to  still  better,  richer  ex- 
periences to-day.  "  Fresh  touch  with  God,"  by 
abiding  in  Christ,  alone  will  keep  the  lean  kine 
and  the  ill-favoured  grain  out  of  my  life. 

T  DO  remember  my  faults  this  day.  Genesis  xh. 
^     9  to  13. 

Because  we  forget  our  faults  so  constantly, 
God  is  good  to  remind  us  of  them  by  circum- 
stances  that   force   us   to   face   them.      Bishop 


146  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

Oldham  has  said  that  there  is  in  the  hfe  of  every- 
one of  us  "  a  vast  area  of  undiscovered  sin."  In 
many  ways  God  is  ceaselessly,  patiently  trying 
to  reveal  to  each  of  us  more  and  more  of  this 
"  undiscovered  country  "  of  our  lives — not  for 
our  discouragement,  but  so  that  we  may  turn 
each[^freshly  revealed  or  remembered  fault  over  to 
Jesus  Christ  and  have  it  forever  done  away  with. 
Let  us  rejoice  whenever  we  remember  present 
faults  of  ours  that  we  were  overlooking.  But  the 
remembering  will  leave  us  worse  off  than  we 
were  before  unless  we  instantly  seek  the  victory 
and  release  which  are  in  Christ. 

/fND  they  brought  him  hastily  out  of  the  dun- 
-^-^  geon.  .  .  .  And  Joseph  answeredj  .  .  . 
//  is  not  in  me  :  God  will  give.     Genesis  xli.  14  to  16. 

That  was  the  reason  why  Joseph  was  brought 
out  of  the  dungeon  :  because  it  was  his  life  habit 
to  say,  "  It  is  not  in  me :  God  will  give."  The 
dungeon  bars  break  for  any  man  who  learns  to 
say  that.  It  is  freedom,  release.  It  is  bondage, 
indeed,  for  me  to  suppose  that  there  is  in  me  any 
good,  any  knowledge,  any  power,  anything  worth 
while,  any  capability  of  meeting  the  responsibilities 
that  confront  me.  The  light  of  liberty  breaks 
when  I  say,  and  mean  it,  *'  It  is  not  in  me  :  God 
will  give."  That  is  the  life  that  is  Christ,  and  it  is 
freer  and  more  satisfying  than  the  life  that  is  self. 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     1 47 

y/N'D  ihz  food  shall  be  for  a  slore  to  the  land 
■^  .  .  .  that  the  land  perish  not.  Genesis 
xli.  17  to  ^6, 

And  so  God  offers  me  food  that  is  abundant 
against  the  times  of  sore  need  in  my  Hfe,  that  I 
perish  not.  That  food  is  nothing  else  than  the 
"  bread  of  Hfe,"  His  own  Son,  Jesus  Christ  my 
Lord,  my  Saviour,  and  my  Life.  As  I  feed  upon 
Christ,  and  let  the  Holy  Spirit  lay  up  stores  of 
this  rich  Treasure  in  my  life,  I  am  absolutely 
safeguarded  against  the  times  of  peril  and  lean- 
ness that  would  otherwise  be  famine  and  destruc- 
tion to  me.  I  must  draw  upon  Christ  for  my 
life  and  as  my  life  in  exactly  the  same  literalness 
with  which  I  eat  my  bodily  food.  "  Except  ye 
eat  the  flesh  of  the  Son  of  man,  and  drink  His 
blood,  ye  have  no  life  in  you.  .  .  .  He  that 
eateth  of  this  bread  shall  live  forever  "  (John  vi. 
53,  58).  Lord  Jesus,  keep  me,  by  the  fullness  of 
Thy  dear  self  within  me,  from  those  times  which 
Satan  would  make  famine  to  my  soul. 

/^AN  we  find  such  a  one  as  this,  a  man  in  whom 
^  the  spirit  of  God  is)  .  .  .  Forasmuch  as 
God  hath  showed  thee  all  this,  there  is  none  so  discreet 
and  wise  as  thou.     Genesis  xH.  37  to  45. 

When  shall  we  let  the  simple  truth  burn  into 
us,  and  cauterize  out  everything  else,  that  the 
measure   of  our  seeming   power — for  it  is  not 


148  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

our  power  at  all — is  the  measure  of  our  self- 
crucifying  surrender  to  the  will  and  life  of  God  ? 
Nothing  that  I  am  or  have  is  of  any  tiniest  value 
in  itself.  God  is  of  value.  He  will  give  Him- 
self in  Christ  to  me,  will  work  His  omnipotence 
through  me,  will  show  forth  His  knowledge  and 
wisdom  and  love  in  supernatural  effect  through 
me,  if  once  for  all  I  stop  thinking  that  /  have 
any  part  in  it  save  that  of  total  inability  and  sur- 
render. Then  my  life  shall  be  marvellous  in- 
deed, not  because  it  is  my  hfe,  but  because  it  is 
a  life  in  which  the  Spirit  of  God  is.  Nothing, 
then,  no  earthly  empire,  can  be  too  great  a  re- 
sponsibiHty  for — not  me,  but  God  in  me.  Lord 
Jesus,  my  Master  and  my  Life,  purge  utterly  out 
of  me  my  lingering  thoughts  of  self,  so  grudgingly 
given  up.  I  have  no  powers,  no  talents,  no 
ability,  no  education,  no  character,  except  my 
sin-earned  worthlessness.  Let  me  never  forget 
that.  And  so  let  me  rejoice  that  this  mass  of 
worthlessness  that  I  call  "  I  "  is  dead  :  that  it  is 
no  longer  I  that  live,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me. 
Now  do  Thy  glorious  will  through  me  forever ! 

/f  ND  Joseph  was  thirty  years  old  when  he  stood 
-"  before  Pharaoh  king  of  Egypt.  Genesis 
xh.  46. 

He  stood  before  Pharaoh  at  thirty  because  he 
had  been  standing  before  God  long  before  he 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     1 49 

was  thirty.  He  had  simply  been  Hving  in  God  ; 
he  was  saturated  with  God ;  God  was  his  Hfe. 
To  advise  the  king  of  Egypt,  and  to  administer 
the  empire,  was  an  easy  matter  for  God;  and, 
therefore,  easy  for  one  whose  whole  life  was  God. 
So  it  should  be  with  us.  God  has  given  Himself 
to  us  in  Christ.  Christ  wants  to  be,  not  my  ex- 
ternal Saviour,  but  my  entire,  literal,  veritable 
life.  It  will  be  a  simple  matter,  then,  for  me  to 
stand  before  a  king  if  that  is  my  duty.  No  con- 
ceivable task,  responsibility,  or  problem  of  my 
life  can  baffle  or  even  tax  Christ ;  therefore,  it 
cannot  defeat  or  disturb  me,  while  **  to  me  to  Hve 
is  Christ." 

f^OD  hath  made  me  fruitful  in  the  land  of  my 

^-^     affliction.     Genesis  xli.  47  to  52. 

That  is  not  only  possible  in  every  affliction,  it 
is  the  purpose  of  every  affliction.  Whether  the 
affliction  is  the  result  of  our  own  sin,  or  is  the 
evidence  of  God's  loving  care,  apart  from  our 
sin,  it  may  always  be  fruitful,  and  it  is  His  will 
that  it  should  be.  The  affliction  resulting  from 
my  own  wrong-doing  is  God's  call  to  turn  away 
from  sin  to  Him ;  the  affliction  for  which  I  am 
not  responsible  is  His  call  to  greater  fruitfulness  : 
"  Every  branch  that  beareth  fruit,  he  purgeth  it, 
that  it  may  bring  forth  more  fruit."  So  affliction 
is  always  to  be  rejoiced  in.     If  we  will  only  take 


ISO  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

it  in  this  way,  as  God  means  us  to,  our  lives  shall 
lay  up  grain  as  the  sand  of  the  sea,  until  we  leave 
off  numbering,  for  it  will  be  without  number. 

/i  ND  the  seven  years  of  famine  began  to  come. 
-^^  .  .  .  And  all  countries  came  into  Egypt  to 
Joseph.     Genesis  xli.  53  to  57. 

How  would  j/ou  like  to  be  such  that  in  time 
of  need  every  one  would  confidently  turn  to  you 
for  help,  and  never  be  disappointed  ?  That  is 
exactly  what  God  intends  you  should  be.  It 
simply  requires  that  you  let  the  Source  of  every 
good  supply  replace  you  with  Himself,  and  then 
pour  Himself  out  in  a  lavish  stream  of  omnipo- 
tent helpfulness  to  others,  all  the  time.  That 
was  Joseph's  secret  of  never-failing  helpfulness 
to  all  who  came  to  him  :  God  was  his  life.  God 
worked  out  this  great  grain  administration ; 
Joseph  could  never  have  done  it.  "  He  that  be- 
lieveth  on  me,"  said  the  One  who  is  the  Bread 
and  Water  of  hfe,  '*  from  within  him  shall  flow 
rivers  of  living  water."  Does  every  one  who 
ever  turns  to  you  for  anything  always  and  only 
find  Christ  awaiting  him  ?  What  a  ministering 
life  we  may  live ! 

/fND  Joseph's  ten  brethren  went  down  to  buy 
-"  grain.  .  .  .  And  Joseph  was  the  governor 
over  the  land ;  he  it  was  that  sold  to  all  the  people. 
Genesis  xlii.  i  to  6. 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     151 

The  man  who  was  governor,  and  who  con- 
trolled the  food  supply  of  the  world,  was  the 
brother  of  these  men  who  were  driven  to  him  by 
their  dire  need.  And  the  One  on  whose  shoul- 
der is  the  government  of  the  world,  and  in  whom 
alone  is  the  bread  supply  of  the  world,  is  my 
Elder  Brother.  It  is  something  of  a  privilege  to 
be  thus  related  to  the  One  to  whom  the  whole 
world  in  its  hunger  and  famine  must  turn,  is  it 
not?  I  have  treated  Him  as  badly  as  Joseph's 
brothers  once  treated  him  ;  but  He  has  forgotten 
it,  blotted  it  out,  put  it  forever  behind  Him.  He 
takes  me  right  into  the  heavenly  court  life  with 
Himself,  and  gives  me  Himself  as  my  food  and 
my  life  forever.  Why  should  I  ever  again  go 
hungry  on  the  husks  of  my  own  poor,  selfish 
planning  and  providing  ? 

/J ND  Joseph  saw  his  brethren^  and  he  knew  them^ 
■^^  but  made  himself  strange  unto  them,  and  spake 
roughly  with  them.     Genesis  xlii.  7,  8. 

And  so  may  even  our  Elder  Brother  do  with 
us  as  did  this  younger  brother  of  these  men,  who 
loved  them,  and  had  the  bread  of  their  life,  and 
was  to  be  a  saviour  to  them.  There  are  times 
when  Christ  seems  to  make  Himself  strange  unto 
us,  and  to  deal  with  us  in  a  way  that  we  cannot 
comprehend.  Then  is  the  time  to  trust  Him. 
Whatever  He  does,  or  seems  to  do,  He  does  it 


152  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

in  a  love  that  yearns  over  us.  And  if  He  does 
seem  to  be  remote  from  us  or, harsh  with  us  in 
any  way,  we  may  be  pretty  sure  that  it  is  some- 
thing of  our  doing  that  has  caused  this.  He  is 
holding  us  all  the  time  in  His  blessed  and  eternal 
grip  of  love. 

AT  AY  J  my  Lord,     ,     .    ,    we  are  true  men. 
-^  ^      Genesis  xHi.  9  to  11. 

It  must  have  rung  strangely  in  Joseph's  ears 
to  hear  these  men  who  were  liars  and  his 
would-be  murderers  protesting,  "  We  are  true 
men."  They  were,  indeed,  speaking  the  truth 
just  then  as  to  the  facts  they  gave  him ;  but  they 
were  not  "  true  men."  His  blood  was  on  their 
heads ;  and  they  had  never,  so  far  as  we  know, 
confessed  their  guilt  to  their  father.  Yet  they 
probably  counted  themselves  respectable,  God- 
fearing citizens.  I  have  as  little  right  to  claim 
any  virtue  in  the  presence  of  my  Elder  Brother, 
my  Saviour  and  Master,  Jesus  Christ.  I  may 
think  I  am  a  "  true  man  "  ;  but  I  know  that  there 
is  a  multitude  of  forgotten  and  undiscovered  and 
unrepaired  sins  in  my  Hfe,  in  the  face  of  which  I 
am  a  complete  and  hopeless  and  worthless  failure 
— of  myself.  Only  as  I  recognize  this  and  con- 
fess it  daily,  hourly,  can  my  Christ  replace  my 
worthless  life  with  His  glorious  Self.  Oh,  how  I 
praise  Him  that,  as  He  crucifies  me  with  Himself, 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     153 

it  is  no  longer  I,  the  awful  failure,  that  lives,  but 
Christ  liveth  in  me  I 

fy^E  are  spies.  .  .  .  And  he  put  them  all  to- 
■*  gether  into  ward  three  days.  Genesis  xlii. 
12  to  17. 

It  must  have  been  bitterly  hard  for  them  to  be 
so  misjudged  and  ill-treated.  They  did  not 
know  that  their  own  brother  was  doing  all  this 
for  no  other  purpose  than  to  work  out  his  loving 
plans  for  them.  It  is  hard  when  we  are  mis- 
judged and  unfairly  condemned.  But  we  may 
be  confident  that  always,  when  God  permits  it,  it 
is  only  because  He  has  loving  plans  for  us  that 
He  would  work  out  that  way.  If  we  accept  the 
injustice  in  trust  and  love,  it  may  be  the  means 
of  drawing  us  and  the  one  who  has  wronged  us 
into  a  blessedly  close  fellowship  in  the  Christ 
whose  love  keeps  us  undisturbed  and  loving 
through  it  all.  Let  me  never  be  anxious  or 
angry  when  I  am  condemned  for  having  done 
right. 

TX^-fi"  are  verily  guilty  concerning  our  brother; 

^^  .  .  .  therefore  is  this  distress  come  upon 
us.  .  .  .  Then  Joseph  commanded  to  fill  their 
vessels  with  grain,  and  to  restore  every  mans  money 
into  his  sack,  and  to  give  them  provision  for  the  way. 
Genesis  xlii.  18  to  25. 

Thus  does  my  consciousness  of  guilt  cry  out 


154  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

against  me,  as  I  fear  my  complete  overwhelming 
and  destruction  because  of  it ;  and  thus  does  my 
Saviour  "  punish  "  me  for  it :  He  bears  its  full 
penalty  for  me,  fills  my  vessels  with  grain,  re- 
stores to  me  all  that  I  have  ever  given  Him,  and 
gives  me  a  King's  provision  for  the  way.  I  give 
Him  my  Hfe:  He  gives  it  back,  recreated  and 
glorified  into  His  likeness.  Every  vessel  of  my 
life  is  heaped  up,  pressed  down,  and  running  over 
with  His  royal  bounty.  But  the  best  of  all  is 
His  Provision  for  the  way :  nothing  less  than 
Himself.  Jesus  Christ  is  my  Way ;  and  He  is 
my  Life.  Thus  has  He  given  Himself  to  me,  so 
that  /*  to  me  to  Hve  is  Christ."  I  am  "  verily 
guilty  "  concerning  Him  whom  I  have  betrayed 
and  crucified ;  I  turn  to  Him  in  my  famine ;  and 
this  is  my  reward :  Christ  is  my  Life. 

T  TE  espied  his  money ;  .  .  .  and  their  heart 
-^-^  failed  them.  .  .  .  Every  man's  bundle  of 
money  was  in  his  sack :  and  .  .  .  they  were 
afraid.  ..  .  .  Me  have  ye  bereaved  of  my  chil- 
dren: .  .  .  all  these  things  are  against  me. 
Genesis  xlii.  26  to  38. 

So  God  kept  piling  up  His  evidences  of  His 
love  for  them,  and  working  out  His  loving  and 
wonderful  plans  for  them ;  and  they  were  afraid, 
for  all  these  things  were  against  them.  The 
money  returned  was   not  a  plot  to  trap  them ; 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    155 

it  was  their  brother's  big-hearted  generosity. 
Joseph  was  not  taken  from  Jacob :  he  was  saved 
that  through  the  son  the  father  might  be  saved, 
and  end  his  Hfe  in  his  son's  loving  care.  Simeon 
was  not  taken  from  Jacob  :  he  was  held  as  a 
hostage  to  insure  the  working  out  of  the  loving 
plans  for  Jacob  and  all  the  family.  But  all  these 
things  were  against  them,  and  they  were  afraid. 
Thus  do  I  fear  and  rebel  against  my  Father's 
wonderful  and  loving  plans  for  the  enriching  of 
my  life.  Oh,  may  I  see  the  folly  and  the  sin  of 
my  distrust  of  Him,  and  rejoice  in  the  things 
that  are  against  me,  hereafter,  forever,  that  He 
may  do  His  glorious  will  for  me,  unhindered  by 
my  blindness  and  stupidity  !  How  rich  He  will 
make^my  life  if  only  my  heart  shall  always  sing, 
"  Though  He  slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust  Him." 

/JND  the  famine  vp as  sore.  .  .  .  They  had 
-"  eaten  up  the  grain  which  they  had.  .  .  . 
Except  we  had  lingered,  surely  we  had  now  returned. 
.  .  .  And  they  took  double  money  in  their  hand j 
and  Benjamin;  and  rose  up,  and  went.  Genesis 
xliii.  I  to  15. 

Praise  God  for  the  famine  in  our  life  that  drives 
us  in  utter  helplessness  back  to  Him !  Praise 
Him  that  what  we  have  gets  eaten  up,  and  we 
must  turn  to  Him  for  more.  But  how  like  unto 
the  faltering,  fearful  family  of  Israel  and  his  sons^ 


156  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

we  act!  We  could  find  absolute  relief,  suffi- 
ciency, satisfaction  in  Jesus  Christ ;  yet  we  delay, 
debate,  wonder,  waste  time,  and  stay  hungry. 
When  finally  in  desperation  we  are  driven  to 
Him  we  think  we  must  do  some  great  thing  to 
meet  His  terms,  and  we  try  to  carry  *'  double 
money  "  in  all  sorts  of  ways,  to  make  sure  of 
what  He  is  yearningly  waiting  to  give  us.  He 
does  ask  us  for  one  thing,  and  one  only :  and 
that  is  the  dearest  possession  of  our  lives.  With 
Israel's  family  the  dearest  possession  was  Benja- 
min. When  we  lay  down  our  dearest  possession, 
then  the  treasures  of  the  kingdom  are  flung  open 
to  us  and  lavished  into  our  Hfe.  O  Master,  show 
me  this  morning  how  to  yield  myself  up  to  Thee 
completely,  and  then  how  to  ask  of  Thee  things 
great  enough  to  be  worthy  of  a  King's  giving. 
Make  me  equal  in  my  requests  to  Thy  infinite 
eagerness  to  give. 

/f  ND  when  Joseph  saiv  Benjamin  with  them,  he 
■^■^  said  to  the  steward  of  his  house.  Bring  the  men 
into  the  house,  and  slay,  and  make  ready  ;  for  the 
men  shall  dine  with  me  at  noon.      Genesis  xliii.  i6. 

When  their  brother,  who  was  to  be  their  sa- 
viour, saw  that  they  had  brought  with  them  the 
dearest  possession  of  their  family,  then  went 
forth  the  instant  word  for  a  king's  feast  to  be 
prepared  for  them.     That  is  all  that  my  Saviour 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     1 5/ 

is  waiting  for  to  lavish  the  fullness  of  His  bounty 
upon  me ;  my  bringing  to  Him  the  dearest  pos- 
session of  my  hfe — myself,  in  unconditional, 
seemingly  costly  and  eternal  surrender,  in  con- 
fessed helplessness  and  awful  need,  to  His  mas- 
tery. Then  He  gives  the  word  to  come  into  His 
own  house,  and  eat  at  the  table  of  the  palace — 
the  best  food  that  He  Himself  partakes  of.  The 
surrender  of  Benjamin,  their  costliest  possession, 
was  the  key  to  the  treasures  of  the  kingdom — 
yes,  to  the  very  recognition  of  Joseph,  for  these 
brothers  and  Jacob.  The  surrender  of  the  cost- 
liest possession  of  my  life  is  the  key  to  the  treas- 
ures of  the  kingdom  for  me — yes,  even  to  the 
recognition  and  full  appropriation  of  Christ  as  my 
whole  and  only  Life.  Oh,  Lord  Jesus,  show  me 
more  that  I  may  give  up,  that  I  may  have  more 
of  Thee ! 

'DROUGHT  the  men  to  Joseph's  house.  And  the 
-^  men  were  afraid.  .  .  .  Peace  be  to  you, 
fear  not :  your  God,  and  the  God  of  your  father, 
hath  given  you  treasure.  .  .  .  And  he  brought 
Simeon  out  unto  them.  .  .  .  And  they  made 
ready  the  present  against  Joseph's  coming.  Genesis 
xliii.  17  to  25. 

What  a  picture  it  is !  The  men,  frightened, 
distressed,  dreading  a  life  of  bondage  and  pov- 
erty, trying  to  explain,  hoping  that  their  little 


158  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

gift  will  help  matters  :  and  the  prince  of  the 
kingdom  all  the  time  having  prepared  for  them 
not  only  a  feast  such  as  only  a  king  could  give, 
but  a  lifetime  of  wealth  and  love.  How  often 
have  I  been  in  distress  over  the  preparations  that 
my  Master  and  Saviour  was  making  for  my  rich 
blessing ;  yet,  my  fear  and  distrust  did  not  turn 
Him  against  me  !  Over  this  chapter  is  the  page- 
heading  in  my  Bible,  "  Joseph  Feasts  with  his 
Brothers."  Over  their  fears  was  that  glad,  shin- 
ing fact  which  was  just  at  hand.  And  he  was 
their  brother^  not  their  ruler.  What  a  wonder- 
ful and  glorious  Saviour  I  have !  How  He  lav- 
ishes His  love  upon  me !  How  I  long  to  yield 
more  and  more  to  Him,  until  the  completeness 
of  my  yielding  shall  let  Him  show  me  the  com- 
pleteness of  His  love  ! 

TS  your  father  well }  ,  ,  ,  God  be  gracious 
■^  unto  thee,  my  son.  And  Joseph  made  haste; 
for  his  heart  yearned.     Genesis  xliii.  26  to  34. 

Through  the  whole  record  of  this  second 
meeting  of  the  brothers  with  Joseph  there  runs 
one  note  that  out-sounds  every  other :  Joseph's 
yearning  love  for  them  all.  Everything  he  said 
and  did  was  from  that  standpoint,  that  motive, 
only.  They  must  have  noticed,  and  have  been 
grateful  for  his  kindliness ;  but  they  did  not  yet 
know  the  heart-break  of  passionate  love  that  was 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     159 

back  of  it  all.  Nor  do  we  yet  know  the  love  of 
Christ  that  is  back  of  all  that  He  does  for  us. 
We  know  something  of  it ;  we  could  know  more, 
if  we  would  yield  to  it  more ;  if  we  should  know 
all,  we  should  never,  could  never,  sin  against  it 
again.  Let  us  think  more  of  Christ's  love,  seek 
to  know  more  of  it,  meditate  more  upon  it,  lose 
ourselves  in  more  complete  abandonment  in  it. 

cr'HE  Egyptians  might  not  eat  bread  with  the  He- 
-^      brcjvs ;  for  that  is  an  abomination  unto  the 
Egyptians.     Genesis  xliii.  32  to  34. 

To  be  sure,  the  Egyptians  would  not  have  had 
any  bread  at  all  to  eat  if  it  had  not  been  for  a 
Hebrew ;  but  that  was  a  minor  matter  compared 
with  the  importance  of  their  ignorant,  sin-blind 
prejudice.  The  facts  are  always  of  less  impor- 
tance than  a  prejudice,  when  a  prejudice  is 
allowed  to  sway.  And  no  one  can  see  true, 
judge  accurately,  or  even  know  what  the  facts 
are,  when  the  blight  of  prejudice  is  permitted  to 
strike  in.  Prejudice  is  caused  always  and  only 
by  one  thing :  self-sufficiency,  which  is  sin.  O 
Lord  Jesus,  cleanse  me  from  my  self-satisfied 
prejudices !  The  only  cure  is  Thyself,  Thy 
boundless  love,  in  me,  which  shall  always  count 
others  better  than  myself,  and  thus  shall  reveal 
to  me  their  good,  and  show  me  the  real  facts  as 
they  are.     Thy  love  is  never  blind ;  my  selfish- 


l6o  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

ness  is  always  blind.  Let  myself  and  sin  be  the 
only  abomination  in  my  sight.  Let  Thy  love  be 
the  lens  through  which  the  beauty  in  all  lives 
about  me  is  revealed  to  me. 


T)UT  my  cup,  the  silver  cup,  in  the  sack's  mouth 
-*•  of  the  youngest.  .  .  .  And  the  cup  was 
found  in  Benjamin's  sack.  Then  they  rent  their 
clothes.  .  •  .  .  And  Joseph  said  unto  his  breth- 
ren.  Come  near  to  me,  I  pray  you.  .  .  .  I  am 
Joseph  your  brother  .  ,  .  to  save  you  alive  by 
a  great  deliverance.  .  .  .  y4nd  he  kissed  all  his 
brethren  and  wept  upon  them:  and  after  that  his 
brethren  talked  with  him.  Genesis  xliv.  i  to  xlv.  15. 
All  that  Joseph  had  done  in  seeming  cruelty 
was  evidently  done  only  in  love,  to  throw  into 
clearer,  sharper  relief  the  full  expression  of  his 
saving  love  and  forgiveness  when  the  time  for 
that  should  come.  And  now  it  has  come :  and 
the  heart-break  of  the  sharp  joy  of  the  unexpected 
restoration  of  everything  that  had  seemed  to  be 
lost,  added  to  a  wealth  and  happiness  of  an  as- 
sured future  beyond  anything  that  the  wildest 
dreams  of  these  sinning  brothers  had  ever  pictured 
— there  is  nothing  like  it  in  all  human  history 
and  experience,  except  the  greater  joy  of  for- 
giveness in  the  undreamed-of  love  of  our  forgiving 
heavenly  Father  through  His  Son,  our  Saviour, 
and  Life,  and  Elder  Brother. 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     l6l 

"  And  after  that  his  brethren  talked  with  him." 
After  the  glory-shock  of  our  full  restoration  into 
the  body  of  Christ,  the  rest  of  our  lifetime  is  not 
long  enough  for  the  conversation  and  communion 
we  must  have  with  Him.  That  is  why  we  must 
*'  pray  without  ceasing  "  ;  we  cannot  help  it. 

/f  ND  when  they  were  gone  out  of  the  city,  and 
■^^  were  not  yet  far  off,  Joseph  said  unto  his 
steward,  Up,  follow  after  the  men;  and  when  thou 
dost  overtake  them,  say  unto  them,  Wherefore  have 
ye  rewarded  evil  for  good)  .  .  .  Then  they 
rent  their  clothes,  .  .  .  and  returned  to  the  city. 
Genesis  xliv.  i  to  13. 

From  the  highest  hopes,  with  hght  hearts  and 
joyful  assurance  of  protection  and  plenty,  they 
are  plunged  into  the  darkness  of  catastrophe, 
bewildered  and  dazed,  crushed  by  the  suddenness 
and  the  cruel  injustice  of  it  all.  They  had  just 
been  feasting  with  Joseph ;  now  they  are  led 
back  under  arrest,  with  evidence  hopelessly 
against  them.  Could  they  continue  to  trust 
Joseph  and  God  in  this  affliction  ?  It  is  just  the 
sort  of  sudden,  unaccountable  affliction  that  may 
strike  into  our  lives  at  any  time,  and  by  the  ex- 
press order  of  the  Father  who  loves  us  most,  and 
at  whose  table  we  have  just  been  feasting.  If  it 
does,  oh,  let  us  trust  Him  to  the  uttermost,  even 
while  He  seems  to  be  slaying  us,  and  with  us 


1 62  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

every  dearest  hope  !  We  know  that  Joseph  did 
this  in  love ;  and  we  see  why,  for  the  whole  story 
is  before  us.  We  may  be  infinitely  surer  that 
our  Father  is  doing  it  in  greater  love  than  Joseph 
had,  even  while  we  cannot  see  why,  and  while 
the  end  of  ozcr  story  is  blindingly  hidden  from 
us.  There  is  nothing  we  can  do  but  trust.  But 
if  we  trust,  then  speedily  we  find  that  there  is  so 
much  more  that  we  can  do.  God  will  become 
dearer  to  us  then,  and  His  love  richer  and 
sweeter,  than  ever  He  was  to  us  before  He  asked 
us  to  trust  Him  in  such  blindness  and  sorrow. 


/IND  thou  saidst  unto  thy  servants,  Except  your 
-"  youngest  brother  come  down  with  you,  ye  shall 
see  my  face  no  more.  .  .  .  Now  therefore,  let 
thy  servant,  I  pray  thee,  abide  instead  of  the  lad  a 
bondman  to  my  lord.  .  .  .  Then  Joseph  could 
not  refrain  himself  .  .  .  and  he  .  .  .  made 
himself  known  unto  his  brethren.  Genesis  xliv.  14  to 
xlvi.  I. 

So  it  is  always :  real  sacrifice,  unto  complete 
surrender  of  self,  brings  the  reveahng  of  God  in 
His  fullness  to  us.  As  we  had  already  seen,  it 
was  only  on  condition  of  Jacob's  releasing  and 
the  brethren's  bringing  the  best  they  had,  Ben- 
jamin, that  they  could  even  see  Joseph's  face 
again.  But  when  Judah  went  farther  than  this, 
and  offered  himself  to  be  Joseph's  slave  forever, 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    1 63 

then  it  was  that  Joseph  could  keep  back  nothing, 
but  found  himself  compelled  to  reveal  every- 
thing to  those  for  whom  his  heart  yearned.  It 
is  God's  own  way  with  us.  God  in  Jesus  Christ 
does  not,  and  apparently  cannot,  make  Himself 
fully  known,  in  His  personality  and  love,  until 
we  have  surrendered  to  Him,  unconditionally 
and  forever,  not  only  all  we  have  but  all  we  are. 
Then  God  can  refrain  no  longer,  but  lavishes 
upon  us,  in  Christ,  such  a  reveahng  of  Himself 
that  it  cannot  be  told  in  words.  God  had  to 
sacrifice  Himself,  in  Christ,  in  order  thus  to  re- 
veal Himself  to  us ;  but  His  sacrifice  alone  will 
not  suffice :  not  until  we  in  turn  have  sacrificed 
ourself  to  Him  is  the  revelation  possible  and 
complete.  But  what  a  revelation  it  is !  What 
glory  does  God  give  us  in  the  life  that  is  Christ 
as  our  life  !  How  it  changes  everything  for  us 
thereafter,  as  for  Joseph's  brothers,  from  famine 
to  royal  abundance  !  How  little  is  our  sacrifice 
when  measured  by  the  return :  Christ  Jesus  our 
Life! 


/f  ND  Joseph  said  unto  his  brethren,  Come  near  to 
-^-^  me,  I  pray  you.  And  they  came  near.  And 
he  said,  I  am  Joseph  your  brother,  whom  ye  sold  into 
^<?7P^-  '  '  .  And  God  sent  me  before  you  to 
preserve  you.  .  ,  .  And  he  kissed  all  his  breth- 
ren.    Genesis  xlv.  2  to  15. 


1 64  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

The  very  crucifixion  of  Christ  by  mankind 
was  turned  by  God  into  the  deliverance  of  man- 
kind. Could  man  conceive  of  such  a  love,  which 
turns  man's  own  sin  into  the  blessing  of  redemp- 
tion ?  It  is  not  that  sin  ever,  under  any  circum- 
stances, is  or  can  be  a  blessing :  the  blessing  lies 
in  God's  attitude  toward  the  sinner.  It  was  not 
the  crucifixion,  but  Christ's  use  of  the  crucifixion, 
that  saved  mankind.  It  was  not  the  hatred  of 
Joseph's  brothers,  but  Joseph's  use  of  the  results 
of  that  hatred,  that  saved  their  lives.  But  what 
a  surpassing  forgiveness  and  love  it  was  in  Joseph 
that  could  tell  them  with  tear-brimming  eyes  not 
to  be  troubled  over  what  they  had  done  to  him ! 
Yet  God's  love  in  Christ  is  greater.  Oh,  may  I 
lose  myself  in  it  in  an  abandonment  of  trust  and 
gratitude  that  shall  let  Him  show  me  His  love 
that  passeth  knowledge,  and,  through  me,  show 
it  ceaselessly  to  others  ! 

f^OME  unto  me :  and  I  will  give  you  the  good  of 
^  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  ye  shall  eat  the  fat  of 
the  land.  .  .  .  Also  regard  not  your  stuff ;  for 
the  good  of  all  the  land  of  Egypt  is  yours.  Genesis 
xlv.  1 6  to  20. 

It  was  a  kingly  offer.  So  is  the  offer  that  God 
makes  us  in  Christ.  Suppose  these  men  had 
held  back  because  they  saw  that  they  would 
have  to   lose   some   of  their   own   belongings ! 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     1 65 

Suppose  they  had  held  on  to  their  famine- 
stricken  property  in  Canaan,  and  had  decHned  to 
trust  the  king  !  Well,  they  would  probably  have 
starved,  or  dragged  out  a  half-starved  existence. 
Christ  asks  us  to  come  unto  Him ;  He  promises 
us  the  best  that  the  God  of  heaven  and  earth  can 
bestow ;  He  urges  us  to  cut  loose  from  all  that 
we  have ;  for  the  good  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
now  and  here,  is  pledged  to  us  instead.  We 
must  choose  between  letting  our  belongings  en- 
tirely go  or  missing  the  fullness  of  the  wealth 
that  Christ  offers.  How  hardly  do  we  let  our 
stuff  go  !  But  how  He  dazzles  our  eyes  with  His 
wealth,  our  wealth  in  Him,  when  we  do  !  Christ 
Jesus,  purge  away  my  last  lingering  desire  for 
any  vestige  of  my  old  belongings  which  is  hinder- 
ing my  full  inheritance  in  Thee. 

/f^D  Joseph  gave  them  .  ,  .  provision  for 
■^-^     the  way.     Genesis  xlv.  21  to  24. 

Perhaps  they  would  have  been  unable  to  un- 
dertake the  difficult  task  of  moving  their  families 
back  to  Egypt  without  this  provision.  In  any 
case,  it  was  a  regal  provision,  with  every  need 
lavishly  met.  So  God  sees  that  we  are  super- 
naturally  enabled  to  travel  every  step  of  the  way 
that  He  maps  out  for  us.  "  The  resources  of 
the  Christian  life,"  Dr.  Robert  F.  Horton  has 
said,  ♦•  are  just  Jesus  Christ."     He  is  our  regal 


1 66  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

provision  for  the  way.  He  is  the  Way.  In 
Him  our  progress  through  Hfe  to  the  goal  that 
God  has  set  for  us  and  invites  us  into,  is  just  a 
royal  march  of  triumph,  surrounded  by  wealth 
and  comfort.  Do  we  believe  in  Christ  enough 
to  let  Him  prove  this  ?  For  it  is  so ;  and  if  we 
are  not  finding  it  so,  the  fault  is  not  Christ's. 
"  He  that  spared  not  His  own  Son,  but  delivered 
Him  up  for  us  all,  how  shall  He  not  with  Him  also 
freely  give  us  all  things  ?  " 

/JNC>  they  told  him,  saying,  Joseph  is  yet  alive, 
-"  and  he  is  ruler  over  all  the  land  of  Egypt. 
.  .  .  //  is  enough  ;  Joseph  my  son  is  yet  alive  : 
I  will  go  and  see  him  before  I  die.  Genesis  xlv. 
25  to  28. 

There  are  heart-breaks  of  joy  in  God's  plan  for 
His  children.  We  can  no  more  imagine  the 
good  things  that  He  has  waiting  ahead  for  us, 
both  in  this  life  and  in  the  life  to  come,  than 
Jacob  could  have  imagined  his  lost  boy  alive  and 
ruling  Egypt.  That  is  the  sort  of  miracle-sur- 
prise awaiting  me  daily  in  the  tingling,  vibrant, 
throbbing  life  of  Jesus  Christ  who  is  my  life, 
when  I  let  Him  fulfill  His  will  and  lavish  Himself 
and  His  gifts  and  surprises  upon  me.  When  I 
let  Him  become  all  that  there  is  of  me  what  a 
here  and  hereafter  He  gives  me  when  I  can  say^ 
"  To  me  to  live  is  Christ,  and  to  die  is  gain  "  ! 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    167 

/^ AME  to  Beersheba,  and  offered  sacrifices  unio 
^  the  God  of  his  father  Isaac.  And  God  spake ^ 
.  .  .  I  am  God,  the  God  of  thy  father  :  fear  not. 
Genesis  xlvi.  i  to  7. 

God  reaffirms  His  best  promises  of  old  when- 
ever we  let  Him  do  so.  Just  now  Israel  was  at 
the  old  home,  where  he  and  Esau  had  spent  their 
youth.  It  was  at  Beersheba  also  that  Isaac  had 
found  peace  from  his  enemies  (xxvi.  23-33),  ^^^ 
God  had  renewed  with  him  the  covenant  of 
Abraham.  Now  an  entirely  new  chapter  of 
Israel's  life  is  opening — the  last  on  earth ;  and 
God  tells  him  quietly,  using  his  boyhood  name, 
that  He  is  the  same  unchanging  God,  and  that 
His  plans  for  him  and  his  seed  are  unchanged 
and  assured.  The  best  promises  that  God  has 
ever  made  to  me  are  still  guaranteed  to  me  by 
His  inviolable  word.  Oh,  may  I  remember  this 
whenever  I  am  tempted  to  doubt  and  wonder 
whether  I  used  to  hope  too  much  !  We  cannot 
hope  too  much  from  God. 

y^LL  the  souls  of  the  house  of  Jacob,  that  came 
-"  into  Egypt,  were  threescore  and  ten.  Genesis 
xlvi.  8  to  27. 

And  this  was  the  man  who,  some  seventy 
years  before,  had  fled  from  his  home  and  every- 
thing he  held  dear,  alone,  a  fugitive,  because  he 
had  broken  his  father's  heart  and  all  but  made 


1 68  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

his  brother  a  murderer  by  his  tricky,  selfish, 
lying  ways.  Now,  loved,  honoured,  wealthy, 
surrounded  by  children  and  grandchildren,  he  is 
on  his  way  to  the  court  of  Egypt  to  spend  the 
remaining  years  of  his  hfe  in  an  atmosphere  of 
love,  blessing,  and  honour  beyond  anything  that 
he  has  yet  known.  And  all  because,  one  night 
at  the  ford  of  Jabbok,  he  yielded  himself  up  for- 
ever to  the  service  and  mastery  of  God.  That  is 
the  way  of  the  surrendered  hfe.  We  *'  give  up  " 
everything — everything  that  is  poisoning  and 
ruining  our  life  :  and  we  get  heaven's  wealth  now 
and  here.  We  give  up  Self,  and  we  get  God. 
The  surrendered  hfe  brings  the  life  that  is  Christ. 

yjND  Joseph  .  .  .  went  up  to  meet  Israel 
-"  his  father ;  .  .  .  and  he  presented  himself 
unto  him,  and  fell  on  his  neck  and  wept  on  his  neck  a 
good  while.  And  Israel  said  unto  Joseph,  Now  let 
me  die,  since  I  have  seen  thy  face,  that  thou  art  yet 
alive.     Genesis  xlvi.  28  to  34. 

Praise  God  for  our  blessed,  loving  fathers  ! 
What  a  reunion  we  are  going  to  have  with  them, 
some  day,  on  the  Other  Side !  If  tears  of  joy 
are  allowed  in  heaven,  we  shall  shed  them  '*  a 
good  while  "  that  day  of  the  reunion.  God  calls 
Himself  our  heavenly  Father,  and  thereby  has 
made  His  relationship  to  us  more  like  that  of 
earthly  father  and  child  than  any  other  human 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     169 

relationship.  Joseph's  love  for  his  father  was  ex> 
ceeded  by  his  father's  love  for  Joseph.  It  is  al- 
ways so.  The  one  who  does  most  for  the  other 
loves  most.  We  love  God  "  because  He  first 
loved  us  "  ;  and  His  greater  love  is  the  school  of 
our  lesser  love.  And  His  supremest  love  for  us 
is  Christ,  the  gift  of  the  Father's  life  poured  out 
for  us  in  Christ  our  hfe. 

rO  sojourn  in  the  land  are  ive  come  ;  for  there  is 
no  pasture  for  thy  servants'  flocks ;  for  the 
famine  is  sore  in  the  land  of  Canaan.  .  .  .  The 
land  of  Egypt  is  before  thee  ;  in  the  best  of  the  land 
make  thy  father  and  thy  brethren  to  dwell.  Genesis 
xlvii.  I  to  6. 

Did  you  ever  come  to  a  time  of  the  most 
awful  famine,  spiritual  famine,  in  your  life,  when 
there  was  no  pasture  to  feed  upon  ?  Joseph  is 
such  a  marvellous  type  of  Christ  all  through  his 
life-story.  So  Christ  at  such  a  time  takes  the 
matter  Himself  for  us  to  the  throne  of  God.  He 
tells  God  we  are  His  own  brothers.  And  what 
is  the  answer  ?  "  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
before  thee ;  in  the  h'st  of  the  kingdom  make 
thy  brethren  to  dwell."  Do  you  realize  what  it 
means  to  have  Jesus  Christ  intercede  for  you — 
the  Christ  whom  you  repudiated  by  your  own 
sin  ?  Pharaoh  knew  not  these  men ;  but  he 
knew   Joseph;  and   nothing  was    too   good  for 


170  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

Joseph  and  every  relative  of  Joseph.  And  we 
are  "joint  heirs  with  Christ."  Because  of  Christ, 
God  flings  wide  open  the  whole  kingdom  and 
simply  asks  that  we  take  its  best.  Out  of 
famine,  into  the  best  that  the  kingdom  affords. 
Not  only  that,  but  rulers  of  the  King's  own  prop- 
erty. O  Lord  Jesus,  forgive  my  unfaith  !  Open 
my  sin-bound,  self-centered  eyes  to  the  wonders 
of  Thy  love.  Teach  me  how  to  receive  more. 
The  Best  of  the  kingdom  :  that  means  Thee. 
I  take  Thee,  Lord,  as  my  feast  of  eternal  life. 

/J ND  Jacob  said  unto  Pharaoh,  .  .  ,  Few 
-^-^  and  evil  have  been  the  days  of  the  years  of  my 
life.     Genesis  xlvii.  7  to  lo. 

In  that  sad  admission  Jacob  showed  the  pres- 
ence of  God  in  his  life.  It  is  the  glory  of  our 
life  that  we  can  see  our  own  awful  sin,  and  suffer 
in  its  contemplation,  and  acknowledge  it  freely  to 
God.  If  we  could  not  do  that,  life  would  be 
hopeless  indeed.  No  man  can  see  his  own  sin 
save  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  whose 
saving  work  it  is  to  convict  us  of  sin.  There  is 
rich  hope  for  us  when  our  past  life  appears  to  us 
as  one  black,  miserable  failure  except  for  Christ's 
part  in  it.'  Oh,  the  joy  of  just  teUing  God  so ! 
The  privilege  of  acknowledging  our  sin  is  that 
which  a  little  child  has  in  coming  to  its  mother 
and  confessing. 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    I/I 

But  we  can  go  farther,  in  Christ,  than  simply 
having  our  sins  completely  forgiven.  We  can 
be  kept  from  sinning.  And  therein  we  have  a 
present  heritage  in  Christ  beyond  that  of  the 
best  of  the  Old  Testament  saints.  Christ's  com- 
plete mastery  of  our  hves  means  His  holding  us 
in  a  life  of  sustained  victory  over  willful  and  con- 
scioussin.  If  He  is  not  able  to  do  this,  then  He 
is  a  limited  and  insufficient  Saviour.  But  He  is 
not  limited ;  and  He  is  sufficient.  He  is  suffi- 
cient, because  "  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life  in 
Christ  Jesus  hath  made  me  free  from  the  law  of 
sin  and  death."  No  Christian  need,  or  ought,  to 
say  on  his  death-bed,  "  Few  and  evil  have  been 
the  days  of  the  years  of  my  life."  That  was 
not  Paul's  valedictory.  In  Christ  he  may  say 
with  Paul :  "  I  have  fought  a  good  fight,  I  have 
finished  my  course,  I  have  kept  the  faith :  hence- 
forth there  is  laid  up  for  me  a  crown  of  right- 
eousness, which  the  Lord,  the  righteous  judge, 
shall  give  me  at  that  day  ;  and  not  to  me  only,  but 
also  to  all  them  that  have  loved  His  appearing." 

^ATD  Joseph  placed  his  father  and  his  brethren, 
^  and  gave  them  a  possession  in  the  land  of 
Egypt,  in  the  best  of  the  land.  .  .  .  And 
Joseph  nourished  his  father,  and  his  brethren.  Gene- 
sis xlvii.  II,  12. 

Not  only  was  Egypt,  the  land  of  plenty,  which 


172  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH         \ 

stood  for  the  bread  supply  of  the  world  during  \ 
this  famine  time,  now  the  permanent  home  of 
these  men,  but  the  best  that  that  land  could  offer 
was  theirs.  And  it  was  theirs  with  permanent 
provision  for  themselves  and  their  families,  be- 
cause of  what  was  done  for  them  by  the  man 
whom  they  had  hated  and  tried  forever  to  do 
away  with.  Therein  is  Joseph's  life-story  the 
wonderful  foreshadowing  of  the  work  of  Jesus 
Christ  We  have,  by  our  sin  and  repudiation  of 
all  that  Christ  stands  for,  rejected  Him  over  and 
over  again,  ever  since  we  deliberately  enlisted  in 
His  service.  We  have  revolted  and  tried  to  cast 
off  His  bonds  of  love.  What  has  been  His  retali- 
ation ?  He  has  not  only  persistently,  irresistibly 
held  us  within  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  the  land 
of  plenty,  but  He  has  insisted  on  giving  us  the 
best  that  that  kingdom  affords,  and  nourishing 
us  with  nothing  less  than  Himself,  as  our  Bread 
of  Life.  Now  let  us  once  and  for  all  give  up 
our  resistance  against  Him !  For  His  love  will 
win  in  the  end  anyway ;  why  should  we  delay  its 
fullest  outworkings  for  us  and  through  us  ? 

/iND  there  was  no  bread  in  all  the  land  ;  for  the 
■^^  famine  was  very  sore.  .  .  .  Buy  us  and 
our  land  for  bread,  and  ive  and  our  land  will  be  serv- 
ants .  .  .  thai  we  may  live,  and  not  die.  Gen- 
esis xlvii.  13  to  22. 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     1/3 

How  good  God  is  to  starve  us  steadily  and  ir- 
resistibly into  that  increasing  surrender  to  Him 
which  finally  has  to  yield  completely,  letting  go 
not  only  our  dearest  possessions  but  our  very 
selves  in  eternal  slavery  to  His  love,  as  the  price 
of  that  Bread  of  Life  which  we  must  have,  or 
die  !  Whatever  may  have  been  Joseph's  motives 
in  this  transaction,  there  is  no  doubt  about  God's 
motives  toward  us.  He  knows  that  so  long  as 
we  keep  back  from  Him  a  single  possession,  and 
so  long  as  we  retain  the  mastery  or  possession  of 
our  own  lives,  we  cannot  have  the  hfe  more 
abundant  that  He  longs  to  give  us.  And  so  He 
lovingly  sees  to  it  that  we  starve  on  everything 
else  than  the  only  and  all-satisfying  Bread  of 
Life,  Jesus  Christ  His  Son,  which  we  can 
have  in  fullness  only  on  God's  own  terms : 
unconditional  surrender  into  eternal  slavery — 
the  slavery  of  the  bond  service  of  love.  But 
when  we  have  finally  and  in  desperation  sold 
out — body,  mind,  soul,  and  spirit,  forever — to 
this  loving  King,  what  a  feast,  an  eternal  feast. 
He  provides !  Oh,  the  joy  and  health  and 
love  and  power  and  fullness  of  the  Life  that  is 
Christ ! 

J  HA  VE  bought  you  this  day  :  .  .  .  here  is 
^  seed  for  you.  .  .  .  Ye  shall  give  a  fifth 
unto  Pharaoh.     .     .     .     Thou  hast  saved  our  Hues  : 


174  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

.     .     .     we  will    be   Pharaoh's  servants.     Genesis 
xlvii.  23  to  26. 

It  had  been  a  choice  between  retaining  their 
liberty  and  dying,  or  surrendering  to  the  king 
and  finding  Hfe  and  provision.  They  wisely  sur- 
rendered, and  now  were  glad  to  accept  the  king's 
own  terms  of  tribute  to  him.  We  are  in  exactly 
the  same  relation  to  Him  who  has  bought  us 
out  of  death  into  life.  Yet  some  of  us  question 
whether,  on  very  limited  incomes,  we  ought  to 
be  expected  to  render  to  our  King,  not  a  fifth, 
but  only  a  tenth,  of  that  which  is  wholly  the  re- 
sult of  His  bounty  to  us !  Shall  we  not  come 
up  near  the  standard  of  Old  Egypt,  and  with 
gratitude  and  heartiness  pay  our  apportionment 
with  systematic  regularity  over  into  the  Lord's 
treasury  ?  The  fact  is,  nine-tenths  of  our  income 
will  go  farther  than  ten-tenths,  if  we  are  really 
His  servants  and  pay  Him  outright,  with  grati- 
tude and  heartiness,  the  other  tenth. 


j^^D  Israel  dwelt  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  in  the 
-^-^  land  of  Goshen ;  and  they  gat  them  possessions 
therein,  and  were  fruitful  and  multiplied  exceedingly. 
Genesis  xlvii.  27. 

The  best  of  the  land  was  Goshen  (xlvii.  6). 
And  there  these  men  and  their  famiHes  were  liv- 
ing, while  riches  increased  unto  them,  and  their 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     1/5 

life  multiplied  and  extended.  It  was  through  no 
merit  of  their  own  that  they  were  there ;  it  had 
come  to  pass  because  just  one  man,  their  brother, 
had  let  God  hold  him  inviolably  true  to  God's 
will.  Are  any  living  "  in  the  best  of  the  land  " 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  on  earth,  their  famine 
turned  into  plenty,  spiritual  possessions  multiply- 
ing unto  them,  and  their  spiritual  life  propagated 
in  others  unto  the  same  blessing,  because  you 
have  thus  let  Christ  use  you  in  inviolable  obedi- 
ence to  His  will  ?  To  see  such  results  in  the 
lives  of  others  because  we  have  lived,  or  rather, 
because  Christ  lives  in  us,  ought  to  be  the  normal 
experience  of  Christ's  disciples  on  earth  to-day. 
"  Herein  is  My  Father  glorified,  that  ye  bear 
much  fruit;  and  so  shall  ye  be  My  disciples." 
"  He  that  abideth  in  Me,  and  I  in  him,  the  same 
beareth  much  fruit." 

yJ^D  the  time  drew  near  that  Israel  must  die : 
-^•^  and  he  called  his  son  Joseph,  and  said  unto 
him,  If  noTv  I  have  found  favour  in  thy  sight,  .  .  . 
deal  k'lndlf  and  truly  with  me.  Genesis  xlvii. 
28  to  31. 

Jacob's  sin  was  finding  him  out.  There  had 
been  a  day,  some  seventy  years  before,  when  his 
father,  Isaac,  lay  near  the  point  of  death,  old  and 
feeble,  and  his  son,  Jacob,  came  to  him  with  a 
blasphemous   lie,  and  broke  his  father's    heart, 


1/6  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WA  TCH 

and  made  his  brother  a  murderer  in  spirit  and 
purpose.  Was  the  old  man  Israel  thinking  Of 
this  as  he  entreated  his  boy  Joseph  now  to  speak 
the  truth  to  him,  and  asked  him  to  seal  it  with 
an  oath  ?  Joseph's  word  was  to  be  trusted. 
Joseph  kept  his  word :  his  father's  longing  was 
fully  met,  after  years  of  peaceful  and  happy  life 
in  the  midst  of  plenty  in  Egypt,  surrounded  by 
his  dear  ones.  And  so  Jacob's  sin  found  him 
out.  That  is  the  "  finding  out "  of  which  W.  M. 
Clow,  in  "  The  Cross  in  Christian  Experience," 
reminds  us.  We  sin,  foully  and  hopelessly  ;  and 
God  pursues  us  inescapably  with  His  love.  The 
life  of  His  Son  Jesus  Christ  is  God's  return  to  us 
for  our  sin.  Joseph's  treatment  of  Israel  is  God's 
return  for  Jacob's  treatment  of  Esau.  Do  our 
hearts  not  break  as  we  face  God's  love  ?  Why 
does  He  treat  us  so  ?  Because  He  is  God,  and 
we  are  what  we  are.  Our  sin  is  so  hopeless  that 
nothing  less  than  the  self-surrendered  love  of  our 
God  who  is  Love  could  save  us.  But  how  glori- 
ous and  abundant  a  salvation  it  is  !  Blessed  be 
the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
who  according  to  His  great  mercy  begat  us 
again  unto  a  living  hope  by  the  resurrection  of 
Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead,  unto  an  inheritance 
incorruptible,  and  undefiled,  and  that  fadeth  not 
away,  reserved  in  heaven  for  you,  who  by  the 
power  of  God  are  guarded  through  faith  unto  a 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     177 

salvation   ready  to  be  revealed  in  the  last  time 
(I  Peter  i.  3-5). 

r\^E.  said  to  Joseph,  Behold,  thy  father  is  sick : 
^  and  he  took  with  him  his  two  sons,  Manasseh 
and  Ephraim.  And  one  told  Jacob,  and  said,  Behold, 
thy  son  Joseph  cometh  unto  thee  :  and  Israel  strength- 
ened himself,  and  sat  upon  the  bed.  Genesis  xlviii.  i,  2. 
Praise  God  for  the  love  of  father  and  son  !  At 
its  best,  it  is  always  the  same,  and  always  one  of 
the  heaven  sent  riches  of  this  life.  Can  you  not 
see  the  picture  in  these  two  verses  ?  Word 
comes  to  Joseph :  "  Your  father  is  sick."  A 
throb  of  pain  goes  through  his  heart.  Every- 
thing is  dropped — state  business,  personal  affairs, 
all :  he  must  be  with  his  father  at  once.  And 
his  boys  must  see  their  grandfather  again ;  they 
go  with  him ;  and  as  they  go  he  tells  them,  with 
glistening  eyes  and  a  strange  break  in  his  voice, 
what  a  father  Jacob  has  always  been  to  him, 
ahvays.  They  don't  appreciate  their  grand- 
father now,  he  says,  but  they  will ;  the  whole 
world  will,  some  day, — and  his  voice  breaks 
again.  It  is  only  Israel,  God's  man,  whom 
Joseph  sees  now  in  his  father ;  and,  in  the  midst 
of  his  pain,  his  heart  sings  for  joy  for  the  man 
that  his  father  is,  and  for  what  his  father  has 
meant  to  him,  and  taught  him  all  his  life  long, 
from  the  old  farm  days  of  the  coat  of  many  colours 


178  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

down  to  the  present  years  of  peace  and  loving 
family  fellowship  in  Egypt.  Everything  that  he 
is  Joseph  owes  to  Jacob  and  he  knows  it. 

But  word  has  come  to  the  old  man,  worn  with 
sickness,  that  Joseph  is  on  the  way.  See  the 
old-time  light  flash  from  Jacob's  eye,  as  he  springs 
up !  "  My  boy  Joseph  coming  ?  I  must  be 
ready  for  him."  And  as  he  waits,  in  eager, 
tensely  loving  expectation,  he  thanks  God  for 
Joseph.  How  much  better  Joseph  has  done 
than  his  father  ever  did,  he  muses  ;  and  tears  of 
keen  sorrow  come  as  he  thinks  again,  •'  Few  and 
evil  have  been  the  days  of  the  years  of  my  life." 
He  forgets — but  Joseph  never  will — that  it  was 
his  boyhood  training  of  Joseph  in  the  old  home 
that  let  God  into  Joseph's  life — the  God  of 
Abraham  and  Isaac — in  such  fullness  and  blessed- 
ness that  the  boy  and  man  never  got  away  from 
that  precious  heritage.  Jacob  is  Joseph's  glory, 
Joseph  is  Jacob's  glory.  But  neither  knows  it  of 
himself,  as  their  hearts  are  breaking  with  love  in 
the  thought  that  this  may  be  their  last  meeting. 

Oh,  you  who  have  had  God-led  fathers,  you 
have  realized  what  it  means,  have  you  not? 
Can  /  ever  forget  it  ?  Can  I  ever  forget  the 
lovelight  that  burned  from  my  father's  eyes  into 
my  heart  as  he  told  me  how  bitterly  he  re- 
proached himself  for  not  having  been  a  better 
man  and  father  ?     He  !     Can  I  ever  forget  that 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     1/9 

every  blessing  that  has  ever  come  into  my  Hfe  is 
the  result  of  his  prayers  and  of  God  in  his  life  ? 
And  can  I  ever  forget  the  word  that  came  to  me 
on  the  7th  of  December,  1903,  in  the  midst  of  a  busy 
forenoon  at  the  office,  that  he  was  ill,  very  ill ;  or 
the  pain  that  thrust  me  through  as  I  hurried  to 
his  home  ?  The  next  day  was  his  last  on  earth. 
Our  heavenly  Father,  Thou  hast  shown  us  who 
Thou  art  through  our  earthly  fathers.  We  know 
Thee  because  we  know  them,  and  they  knew 
Thee.  In  Christ  they  and  we  are  one,  and  one 
with  Thee.  And  we  thank  Thee  for  revealing 
Thyself  to  us  through  our  fathers.  We  thank 
Thee  for  their  lavished,  costly  love.  May  we 
make  their  past  a  success.  May  we  not  dis- 
honour their  name.  May  they,  as  they  watch 
us  from  here  or  overhead,  see  Christ  in  us  be- 
cause we  see  Christ  in  them. 


f^OD  Almighty  appeared  unto  me  at  Lu-{  in  the 
^-^  land  of  Canaan,  and  blessed  me,  and  said  unto 
me.  Behold,  I  will  make  thee  fruitful,  and  multiply 
thee,  and  I  will  make  of  thee  a  company  of  peoples, 
and  will  give  this  land  to  thy  seed  after  thee  for  an 
everlasting  possession.     Genesis  xlviii.  3  to  7. 

Praise  God  for  the  memory  of  our  great 
experiences  of  Him  !  And  if  we  have  not 
had  them,  we  ought  to  have  them,  and  we 
may  have  them  by  seeking  for  them.     It  is  a 


l8o  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

great  day  when  God  makes  Himself  known  to 
a  man  in  utterly  new  fullness,  showing  him 
Christ  not  only  as  his  Saviour,  but  as  his  life : 
Christ  as  the  entire  being,  the  whole  man, 
body,  mind,  soul,  and  spirit.  And  in  that 
flood-tide  of  new  blessing  God  promises  to  the 
man  such  spiritual  fruit-bearing  as  he  had  never 
before  known  was  possible  (for  it  is  now  Christ, 
not  the  man,  who  will  do  the  whole  work),  and 
God  promises,  too,  that  the  new  glory-blessing 
that  has  come  shall  be  multiplied,  through  the 
man  out  into  the  lives  of  a  company  of  peoples, 
and  "  this  land,"  the  new  wealth,  Christ  the  life, 
shall  be  given  unto  all  these  "  for  an  everlasting 
possession."  Can  such  a  day  ever  be  forgotten? 
Like  all  our  best  blessings  and  experiences,  it  is 
a  sheer,  outright  gift  from  God.  It  is  not  a 
matter  of  growth,  or  cultivation,  by  ourselves :  it 
is  just  "  ask,  and  ye  shall  receive ^  that  your  joy 
may  be  full."  Father,  hold  us  truer  to  the  rich 
memory  of  our  rich  past ! 

J  HAD  not  thought  to  see  thy  face:  and  lo,  God 
-*  hath  let  me  see  thy  seed  also.  And  Joseph 
bowed  himself  with  his  face  to  the  earth.  Genesis 
xlviii.  8  to  12. 

That  is  the  way  God  has  always  dealt  with  me. 
It  is  His  way  with  all  His  people :  "  exceeding 
abundantly  above  all  that  we  ask  or  think."    How 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     l8l 

vividly  Jacob  must  have  remembered  the  dreary 
years  when  he  had  given  up  all  hope  of  ever  see- 
ing his  son  again  on  earth  !  How  he  must  have 
recalled  the  heart-break  of  that  day  when  he 
knew  that  his  boy  was  destroyed,  for  he  had  seen 
his  blood-stained  coat !  All  hope  gone;  but  God 
still  in  charge;  and  now  Joseph  and  Joseph's 
sons  are  before  him,  in  safety  and  health  and 
happiness !  And  as  it  all  swept  over  Joseph, 
with  the  memory  of  that  day  of  his  brothers' 
betrayal,  and  the  years  of  hardship  and  injustice 
and  perhaps  doubt  in  Egypt,  is  it  strange 
that  he  '•  bowed  himself  with  his  face  to  the 
earth"  before  his  father  and  his  father's  God? 
Shall  we  not  remember  this  wonderful  scene  the 
next  time  things  get  so  black  that  all  hope  seems 
dead?  The  same  God  who  raised  up  seed  to 
Jacob  through  his  "  dead "  boy  Joseph  is  still 
God  :  our  God  and  our  Father.  And  He  can  do 
more  for  us  through  His  Son  and  His  Holy 
Spirit  to-day,  than  He  could  for  Jacob  and 
Joseph.  Father,  we  praise  Thee,  we  love  Thee, 
and  we  trust  Thee. 


CT^HE  God  before  whom  my  fathers    .     .     .     did 
-*-      walk,  the   God  who  hath  fed  me  all  my  life 

long  unto  this  day,     .     .     .     bless  the  lads.     .     .     . 

Howbeit  his  younger  brother  shall  be  greater  than  he. 

Genesis  xlviii.  13  to  22. 


l82  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

It  was  a  strange  and  beautiful  and  dramatic 
scene,  this  death-bed  benediction  of  one  of  the 
giant  figures  of  history  upon  the  sons  of  his  son. 
Notice  that  "  he  blessed  Joseph,  and  said,  God 
bless  the  lads."  He  blessed  Joseph  by  blessing 
the  boys.  God's  blessing  of  the  children  is  His 
blessing  upon  the  father.  Any  true  father  would 
rather  have  it  so. 

But  the  two  conspicuous  truths  here  are  these  : 
God's  unchanging,  unfaihng,  and  all-providing 
love;  and  the  arbitrary  and  often  unexplained 
way  in  which  God  determines  and  distributes 
His  earthly  gifts  or  assignments.  Joseph  as- 
sumed that  his  first-born  should  have  the  greater 
temporal  blessing.  God  said,  "  No  "  ;  that  it  was 
for  the  younger  one.  Jacob  himself  was  a 
younger  son,  yet  his  supremacy  over  the  older 
had  been  foretold  by  God  before  his  birth.  So 
he  now  foretells  a  like  blessing  for  Ephraim,  the 
younger.  But  God's  all-sufficient  love  was 
pledged  to  both  :  and  that  was  enough.  If  we 
have  God's  love,  we  may  rejoice  when  that  love 
directs  us  into  a  less  conspicuous  place  than  our 
younger  brother.  God  was  as  loving  toward 
Manasseh  as  toward  Ephraim. 


/fSSEMBLE  yourselves,  .  .  .  ye  sons  of 
■^^  Jacob ;  and  hearken  unto  Israel  your  father. 
Reuben^     .     .     .     thou  shall  not  have  the  preemi- 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS    1 83 

newce.  ,  .  .  Simeon  and  Levi  .  .  .  cursed 
be  their  anger  .  .  .  Judah,  thee  shall  thy  breth- 
ren praise.     Genesis  xlix.  i  to  12. 

Another  wonderful  scene  is  this,  of  the  death- 
bed prophecy-song  of  Israel  unto  that  group  of 
strong  men  his  sons.  Remember  that  here  was 
the  founder  of  the  nation  Israel ;  and  here  were 
the  founders  of  the  twelve  tribes  that  played  and 
shall  yet  play  a  larger  part  in  the  world's  history 
than  all  the  rest  of  the  world  put  together.  With 
a  vision  given  him  because  of  his  years  of  sur- 
rendered living  unto  God,  Israel  foretells  with 
fearless  truthfulness  the  results  of  the  life  choices 
of  these  his  own  sons.  Sin  was  to  have  its  own 
sure  reward ;  so  was  righteousness. 

Judah,  in  the  hour  of  the  supreme  test  that 
Joseph  put  on  the  brothers  just  before  disclosing 
himself,  had  shown  his  self-crucifying  readiness 
to  live  or  die  for  others ;  and  from  Judah 
was  to  come  Jesus.  The  same  choices  and  re- 
sults confront  me  to-day.  Self-will,  and  vio- 
lence against  God  and  my  fellows;  or  self- 
death,  and  Christ  giving  Himself  through  me  to 
the  world. 


^EBULVN  .  .  .  shall  be  for  a  haven  of 
^-^  ships.  .  .  .  Issachar  .  .  .  bowed  his 
shoulder  to  bear,  and  became  a  servant  under  task- 
work.    .     .     .     Dan  shall  be  a  serpent  in  the  way. 


l84  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

.  .  .  I  have  IP aiied  for  thy  salvaiioiiy  O  Jehovah. 
Genesis  xlix.  13  to  21. 

In  the  sons  of  Israel  was  the  whole  gamut  of 
human  hfe.  We  can  choose  from  the  list  what 
we  will  for  ourselves.  And  in  Christ  alone  we 
find  that  we  can  choose  and  become  the  better 
parts  of  the  family  of  Israel.  Would  we  be  a 
haven  of  ships  ?  Christ  as  our  life  can  make  of 
us  a  veritable  haven  for  all  who  thus  need  us. 
To  fill  the  glorious  place  of  a  servant  under  task- 
work is  simply  to  surrender  unconditionally  to 
Him  who  "  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but 
to  minister  "  ;  then  we  shall  be  the  servant  of  all. 
And  only  those  in  Christ  can  escape  being  "  ser- 
pents in  the  way  "  of  all  about  them.  Our  so- 
called  best  without  Him  is  only  as  an  adder's 
poison. 

Notice  how  Israel  interrupts  himself  in  the 
midst  of  his  foretelling  to  cry,  "  I  have  waited 
for  Thy  salvation,  O  Jehovah."  May  that  be  our 
constant  remembrance  !  Not  only  have  we  now 
a  full  and  sufficient  salvation  in  Christ  Jesus,  but 
we  are  waiting  for  its  completion  :  for  the  final 
casting  off  of  the  body  of  corruption  :  for  His 
coming  again  to  complete  the  salvation  of  the 
world  and  the  universe,  until  God  shall  be  all 
and  in  all.  As  we  wait  in  keen,  tense  expecta- 
tion of  that,  Christ  can  evermore  occupy  us  with 
Himself,  and  use  us  to  His  honour  and  glory. 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     1 85 

<>rOSEPH  is  ...  a  fruitful  bough  hy  a 
J  fountain.  .  .  .  And  the  arms  of  his  hands 
were  made  strong,  by  the  hands  of  the  Mighty  One 
of  Jacob.  .  .  .  The  blessings  of  thy  father 
.  .  .  shall  be  ...  on  the  crown  of  the  head 
of  him  that  was  separate  from  his  brethren.  Genesis 
xlix.  22  to  26. 

Here  is  Christ  in  the  Old  Testament  as  plainly 
as  Christ  in  the  New.  The  blessings  of  Joseph 
are  the  blessings  that  Christ  lavishes  upon  us 
when  we  meet  the  conditions  as  Joseph  did. 
Would  I  be  "  a  fruitful  bough  "  ?  "I  am  the 
vine,  ye  are  the  branches  :  he  that  abideth  in  Me, 
and  I  in  him,  the  same  bringeth  forth  much 
fruit."  By  what  fountain  shall  I  thrive  ?  "  Who- 
soever drinketh  of  the  water  that  I  shall  give 
him  shall  never  thirst."  But  I  need  strength  to 
replace  my  pitiful  weakness.  "  Be  strong  in  the 
Lord,  and  in  the  power  of  His  might."  "  I  can 
do  all  things  through  Christ  which  strengtheneth 
me."  And  all  that  I  saw  of  Christ's  blessings 
lavished  upon  my  father  are  pledged  in  His  cove- 
nant-blood to  me,  if  I  will  be  "  separate  from  " 
the  things  of  my  brethren  of  the  world  which 
war  against  God  and  His  will.  The  margin  tells 
us  that  to  be  "  separate  from  "  is  to  be  "  prince 
among."  Christ  does  not  ask  His  followers  to 
take  the  fag  end  of  things.  Only  those  who 
have  died  to  self  and  been  replaced  by  Christ 


1 86  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

know  the  fullness  of  enjoyment  in,  and  possession 
of,  even  the  best  tilings  of  this  world.  His 
promises  pledge  this.  What  a  program  Christ 
has  made  for  us  ! 

/fND  when  Jacob  made  an  end  of  charging  his 
•^-^  sons,  he  .  .  ,  fielded  up  the  ghost,  and 
was  gathered  unto  his  people.  And  Joseph  fell  upon 
his  father  s  face,  and  wept  upon  him,  and  kissed  him. 
Genesis  xlix.  27  to  1.  3. 

There  is  no  other  day  in  the  life  of  a  man  who 
has  had  a  good  father  like  the  day  when  that 
father  finally  leaves  him.  He  may  have  thought 
he  was  ready  for  it,  and  that  he  knew  what  it 
would  be  Hke  ;  but  he  was  not.  Joseph,  the 
most  capable  of  all  the  sons,  seems  to  have  felt 
his  loss  the  most  keenly.  Life  would  always  be 
different  for  him  now.  Never  again  could  he 
turn  to  that  loving,  experienced,  wise  father  for 
counsel.  Oh,  the  strangeness  of  it  all !  Some- 
thing has  gone  out  of  life  that  was  greater  than 
we  knew.  Life  can  never  be  the  same  again,  we 
think.  And  it  is  not.  For  just  there  God  comes 
in.  God  would  mean  more  to  a  man,  after  his 
earthly  father  is  gone,  than  He  ever  did  before. 
And  so  we  are  driven  from  the  lesser  resource  to 
the  greater,  and  our  father's  God  becomes  our 
God  in  a  new  and  richer  way.  And  even  the 
father  and  son  are  sometimes  more  closely  united 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     1 87 

than  before.  There  may  be  a  consciousness  of 
spiritual  fellowship  with  the  father  who  has  cast 
off  the  body,  keener  than  any  that  was  had  while 
the  body  was  the  barrier  to  such  fellowship. 

What  a  comfort  in  the  phrase  "  Gathered 
unto  his  people  "  !  The  people  of  the  family 
of  God  hve  in  heaven.  When  a  member  of 
such  a  family  dies,  he  goes  right  to  his  own 
dear  ones  in  heaven.  The  family  circle  over 
there  is  growing  larger  all  the  time,  never  to  be 
broken  again.  And  all  this  has  been  done  for  us 
by  Christ  Jesus.  Only  in  Him  was  it  possible. 
Do  we  thank  Him  constantly  enough,  who  took 
into  His  own  veins  our  death,  and  forever  broke 
the  power  of  death  for  us  ? 

J"  O,  /  die  :  in  my  grave  .  .  .  in  the  land  of 
-^— '  Canaan,  there  shall  thou  bury  me.  .  .  . 
And  Joseph  went  up  to  bury  his  father ;  and  with  him 
went  up  all  the  servants  of  Pharaoh,  the  elders  of  his 
house,  and  all  the  elders  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  all 
the  house  of  Joseph,  and  his  brethren,  and  his  failures 
house.     Genesis  1.  4  to  14. 

God's  love  followed  even  Jacob's  dead  body, 
in  the  same  way  that  it  had  enriched  him  all 
through  his  life.  Jacob  asked  simply  that  he  be 
allowed  to  sleep  with  his  fathers  in  his  homeland. 
God  not  only  granted  his  request,  but  made  it 
the  occasion  of  honouring  him  far  beyond  any- 


1 88  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

thing  that  he  had  asked.  God  never  can  stop 
with  merely  meeting  our  right  desires.  He  goes 
lavishly  beyond  them.  Ask  or  expect  what  we 
will  of  Him,  He  always  does  better.  We  have 
never  asked  enough.  We  never  can,  in  this  life : 
He  will  always  better  it.  That  is  His  purpose, 
His  joy.  Not  only  of  tithing,  but  of  all  our  re- 
lationship with  Him,  He  keeps  saying  :  *<  Prove 
Me  now  herewith,  if  I  will  not  open  you  the 
windows  of  heaven,  and  pour  you  out  a  blessing, 
that  there  shall  not  be  room  enough  to  receive 
it."  You  have  seen  the  graphic  arrangement 
that  has  been  made  of  His  word  through  Paul : 

All  that  we  ask. 
!  All  that  we  ask  or  think. 

Above  all  that  we  ask  or  think. 
Abundantly  above  all  that  we  ask  or  think. 
Exceeding  abundantly  above  all  that  we  ask  or  think. 
According  to  the  power  that  worketh  in  us. 

Oh,  that  we  would  just  press  on  in  ever  bolder 
measure,  with  our  requests,  into  the  heart  of 
God  !  Ask,  He  says  ;  ask,  ask,  ask ;  and  ye 
shall  receive — but  always  more  than  you  ask. 

TT  may  he  that  Joseph  will     .     .     .    fully  requite 
-*     us  all  the  evil  which  we  did  unto  him.     .     . 
And  Joseph  wept,     .     .     .     And  Joseph  said  unto 
them,  Fear  not :     .     .     .     I  will  nourish  you,  and 
your  little  ones.    Genesis  1.  15  to  21. 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     1 89 

Mow  it  must  have  cut  Joseph  to  the  heart  to 
learn  that  his  brothers  were  afraid  of  him  !  That 
they  were  actually  asking  him  now  to  forgive 
them  !  Could  it  be  so,  after  all  that  he  had  done 
to  show  them  his  love,  and  after  that  day  of  days 
when  he  had  sent  all  men  out  from  him  and  had 
first  made  himself  known  unto  them  ?  Yet  even 
this  evidence  of  their  utter  failure  to  understand 
or  even  to  believe  in  his  love  did  not  dim  his  love 
one  iota,  wound  him  though  it  did.  He  only 
loved  them  more,  as  their  pitiable  need  of  a  bet- 
ter understanding  of  his  love  showed  itself  so 
cruelly.  He  spoke  right  to  their  hearts,  and  he 
convinced  them.  We  can  hear  him  saying : 
"  Forgive  you  ?     I  have  nothing  to  forgive." 

But  it  is  just  the  way  I  treat  my  Saviour  and 
Master.  I  find  myself  nervously  and  anxiously 
bringing  Him  my  every  infraction  of  His  dear 
will  and  asking  Him,  insistently  and  laboriously, 
to  forgive  me.  It  must  only  wound  Him  afresh. 
Not  that  He  does  not  want  us  to  seek  forgive- 
ness after  sin ;  but  it  must  be  that  it  would  be 
more  pleasing  to  Him  for  us  to  hve  in  a  quiet, 
unanxious  resting  in  His  constant  forgiveness 
than  to  keep  running  to  Him  every  little  while 
with  a  fresh  inquiry  as  to  His  forgiveness,  as 
though  our  welfare  in  Him  depended  on  our  ac- 
curate bookkeeping  in  the  forgiveness  account, 
instead    of    on    the    warm,    incessant,    cleansing 


I90  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

Gulf  Stream  of  His  love.  Oh,  let  us  trust  Him 
more  quietly.  Let  us  lose  ourselves  and  all 
thought  of  ourselves  and  our  condition  in  an 
overwhelmed  realization  of  Himself,  His  love, 
His  power,  His  unfaiUng  forgiveness,  as  our  Life. 

//ND  Joseph  said  unto  his  brethren,  I  die;  but 
-"  God  will  surely  visit  you,  and  bring  you  up 
out  of  this  land  unto  the  land  which  he  sware  to  Abra- 
ham, to  Isaac,  and  to  Jacob.     Genesis  1.  22  to  26. 

The  keeping  of  God's  promises  does  not  de- 
pend upon  the  life  or  death  of  any  man.  What 
an  eternally  blessed  comfort  this  truth  is  to  us  ! 
Those  things  for  which  the  Spirit  of  the  living 
God  has  impelled  me  to  pray,  which  I  know  are 
in  accordance  with  His  will,  and  for  which  I  am 
praying  in  faith  and  in  Christ's  name,  nothuig  can 
defeat.  They  are  accomplished  now,  in  God's 
timeless  eternity.  If  they  have  to  do  with  His 
leading  certain  of  His  children  out  of  Egypt  into 
the  promised  land  of  His  kingdom,  He  will  do  it, 
and  nothing  can  prevent  it.  I  may  die,  and 
never  see  it  in  the  flesh.  That  is  a  minor  mat- 
ter. It  will  be  done,  for  God  has  promised.  By 
faith  I  accept  this  and  praise  God  for  it.  Let 
not  Joseph's  faith  exceed  mine  (Heb.  xi.  22). 
Let  me  plan  confidently  for  the  outcome.  "  For 
I  know  Him  whom  I  have  believed,  and  I  am 
persuaded  that  He  is  able  to  guard  that  which  I 


DEVOTIONAL  STUDIES  IN  GENESIS     191 

have  committed   to    Him  against  that  day"  (i 
Tim.  i.  12). 

/GENESIS,  the  Book  of  the  Beginnings  of  God's 
^-^    Love  and  Promises. 

Now  that  we  have  read  the  book  through,  how 
the  promises  of  God  stand  out  in  the  shining  ra- 
diance of  His  love !  The  Creation  and  the  Gar- 
den of  Eden  were  promises  of  a  heaven  on  earth 
to  men ;  but  man  would  not  have  it  so.  Yet 
God's  love  at  once  commenced  new  promises : 
the  serpent's  head  was  to  be  bruised  by  man's 
heel,  as  in  Christ  Jesus  it  is  done.  Then  fol- 
lowed the  wonderful  and  wonderfully  kept  prom- 
ises to  Noah,  Abraham,  Isaac,  Jacob,  Joseph, 
and  Joseph's  brethren.  Many  times  man's  sin 
delayed  God's  promises,  but  always  the  promises 
were  renewed  and  kept.  For  God  is  greater 
than  man  or  Satan ;  and  God's  love  cannot  be 
defeated  by  man's  distrust  or  Satan's  attacks. 
And  every  Genesis  promise  of  God,  as  every 
other  promise  of  God,  is  wrapped  up  in  Jesus 
Christ,  His  only  begotten  Son,  the  Lord  and 
Saviour  and  Life  of  the  world. 

So  God's  promises  to  you  and  to  me  to- 
day are  pledged  in  Christ's  covenant  book. 
We  have  done  much  to  defeat  them.  We 
have  sorely  and  shamefully  resisted  Him, 
wounded  Him,  delayed    Him   in  what    He  has 


192  MESSAGES  FOR  THE  MORNING  WATCH 

pledged  Himself  to  do  for  us  and  through  us. 
But  God's  forgiving  power  in  Christ  is  greater 
than  the  death  power  of  our  sin.  He  will  keep 
His  promises  to  every  one  who  has  ever  received 
Jesus  Christ  as  Saviour,  Master,  and  Life.  To 
none  others  are  any  promises  made — save  the 
awful  promise  of  final  death ;  and  even  that 
promise  is  made  in  love,  for  God  is  love. 

God's  promises  are  undefeatable.  Satan  is  but 
an  "  already  defeated  foe."  The  promises  of 
glory  unthinkable  pledged  to  us  in  Jesus  Christ 
are  ouj^Sy  and  they  never  can  be  taken  from  us; 
they  will  be  redeemed  beyond  all  that  we  ask 
or  think.  Oh,  let  us  give  our  covenant-keeping 
God  and  Saviour  His  unhindered  way  with  us, 
now  and  forever ! 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


Date  Due 

Ap8    ^ 

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tiiT  12  m 

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